Business Group Argues Against New Employment File Requirements

HARTFORD — With all of the employment laws, regulations, and personnel issues facing Connecticut employers, representatives at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association believe adding more administrative requirements should be considered carefully.

A proposal in the House, HB 5235, however, would significantly expand employers’ obligations for personnel files with unnecessary, burdensome, and duplicative documentation mandates.

HB 5235 imposes strict new deadlines on Connecticut employers to produce any employee’s personnel file, including disciplinary letters, whenever an employee requests it — including up to one year after he or she leaves the company.

State law already requires an employer to provide current and former employees with a copy of their personnel files, as well as retain such files for at least one year after termination. Under HB 5235, employers would have just three days after the request to produce the files, or in the case of a former employee, ten days.

Establishing rigid deadlines such as this fail to account for variations in current practices where, in some cases less time may be sufficient, or in other instances more time may be needed due to offsite storage of files.

This could also open the door to unlimited potential nuisance requests — employees (and possibly disgruntled former employees) making the request on a daily basis even when there are no changes to the file. Most businesses are not equipped to handle such an additional volume, according to a release from the CBIA.

And HB 5235 does not define what would constitute a disciplinary action, which could range from informal verbal comments to coaching discussions to warnings to notice of a decision to discharge, workplace communications that may or may not belong in an employee’s personnel file.