Past Reviews

holein1

In Pennsylvania, should an ex-employee be able to request and receive copies of past reviews?  Is there any legislation limiting the ex-employee's right?

regdunlop

 

 "INSPECTION OF
EMPLOYMENT RECORDS LAW"
ACT of 1978, P.L. 1212, No. 286

An employer shall, at reasonable times, upon request of an employee, permit that employee or an agent
designated by the employee to inspect his or her own personnel files used to determine his or her own
qualifications for employment, promotion, additional compensation, termination or disciplinary action.http://www.dli.state.pa.us/landi/lib/landi/laws-regulations\llc\pfa.pdf 

in the definition of personnel file, the law mentions performance evaluations. after all a employee's prior performance evaluations are used to to determine qualifications for promotion. even if blocking access was allowed what reason is there to do it?

TXHRGuy

The operative term is "employee".

 

As a former employee, you have no basic right in any state that I am aware of, except through legal means such as subpoena or discovery.

LadyAnn

Some states do use the word "employee" to indicate both current and former employees.  Since PA law specifically discusses the fact the the employee can inspect the personnel file used to determine termination, I would err of the side that PA probably considers former employees in this law.  Not sure what PA courts have done, but I would not want to be the test case.

But also note that the law says they have the right to inspect, not the same thing as receiving copies.

IT HR

On one of the other postings I had asked if anyone knew about a state by state comparison chart related to review of personnel files for something I am working on. One of th BLR editors posted this link:

http://hr.blr.com/hr_docs/1982_103.pdf

According to the chart it says for PA:  "Employees may inspect personnel records, except for medical records, planning documents, credit information, investigations, references, legal inquires, or grievances.  Employer not obligated to allow copying."    PA Stat. tit. 43 1322

The one thing I noticed while looking at this report is that it listed some states (Alaska, Washington DC, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada) as allowing current and former employees access to the file.  So when it says employees I would take that as just current employees.  You could look at the statue listed above that this document gave as the reference to be sure this is the case. 

 

TXHRGuy

Lady Ann raises a good point.

IT HR raises a good document.

 

Time to ask an employment law attorney in PA.