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What’s in your personnel file dictates your raise, whether you keep your job, and maybe even whether your employer will give you a job reference in the future. You must be entitled to see it, right? Believe it or not, you have no right to see or to obtain a copy of the personnel file that your employer keeps on you. New Jersey and many other states say that your personnel file is your employer’s property and you have no right to that property. There’s one exception, though. If you sue your employer (for harassment, discrimination, whistle-blowing, or another claim), you are then allowed to get a copy of your file. The law says that you can see it in litigation because it is relevant to a legal claim against your employer.
February 27, 2010 Paul Castronovo – Castronovo & McKinney, LLC – NJ Employment Attorneys