Employee Personnel File Access

An employee or a designated representative has a right to inspect the employee’s personnel file including all records that are used to determine the employee’s own qualifications for employment, promotion, additional compensation, termination or discipline. 43 P.S. §§1321-1323.   The employer may impose the following restrictions on the inspection:

• Employee may be required to provide written notice of either the purpose of inspection or parts of record to be inspected
• Inspection may be limited to times during employer’s normal work hours
• Inspection may be mandated during employee’s "free time"
• Employer may limit the employee’s ability to remove the file or copy any part of it
• Employee may take notes
• Company official may be present during inspection
• Except for reasonable cause, employer may limit inspection to once every calendar year by an employee and once by a designated representative