Managing personnel records

State Records Authority of New South Wales

Recordkeeping In Brief 24 - Managing personnel records

Introduction: Personnel records documenting the management ofemployees are important records in all organisations. Some of these need to be maintained for long periods of time, often after an employee has left the organisation, in order to protect ongoing rights and interests of theemployee and the organisation. Personnel records that contain information about individuals are also likely to be highly sensitive and personal and must be adequately protected from unauthorised access. This document suggests some strategies for effective and efficient management ofpersonnel records.

• Types of personnel records
• Achieving efficient management of personnel records
• Establish policies and procedures
• Design personnel recordkeeping systems to support retention and privacy requirements
• Create and maintain summary records
• Benefits
• What makes an adequate summary record?
• Retention of summary records

Example:

Records relating to the following areas could contain identifying and sensitive information about individuals:

• counselling
• discipline
• grievances
• performance management
• criminal record checks
• working with children checks
• workers compensation, or
• medical conditions or treatment.

Therefore a system design solution would be to keep these matters on separate electronic or paper files from:

• general personnel information, or
• information on the individual's main employee file.

That way, higher security measures can be taken to control access to the files containing the sensitive information, with even more limited access than other personnel or employee files usually receive. Separating these matters can also ensure records due for destruction can be promptly and easily removed and destroyed securely in line with privacy principles.

What makes an adequate summary record?

It is the public office's responsibility to determine whether the summary record is 'adequate' to meet the requirements for evidence. This may need to be a risk based decision and subject to a risk management process.

Summary records for employment and service should at least contain details of:

• identification number
• name and name changes
• date of birth
• address
• contacts
• date appointed
• date of leaving the service
• status
• position and dates held
• promotions and higher duties and dates held
• appointment letter or contract
• locations of work
• description of duties
• salary rates, and
• allowances.

Personnel files and records

California - Dept of industrial relations
Personnel files and records
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_righttoinspectpersonnelfiles.htm

California law requires that employers allow employees and former employees access to their personnel files and records that relate to the employee’s performance or to any grievance concerning the employee. Labor Code Section 1198.5  Inspections must be allowed at reasonable times and intervals. To facilitate the inspection, employers must do one of the following: (1) keep a copy of each employee’s personnel records at the place where the employee reports to work, (2) make the personnel records available at the place where the employee reports to work within a reasonable amount of time following the employee’s request, or (3) permit the employee to inspect the records at the location where they are stored with no loss of compensation to the employee.

paper tourism

paper tourism


http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products-opentext-ecm-suite-for-sap/products-opentext-employee-file-management-for-sap.htm


This process gets even more complicated when employee files have to be sent from one location to another. A time-consuming and error-prone process sometimes referred to as “paper tourism” (i.e. the paper goes on a tour).


OpenText Employee File Management for SAP Solutions (resold by SAP as SAP Employee File Management by OpenText) provides HR departments with a complete solution: all printed documents from employees and job applicants, master data and internal personnel documents are immediately available from the electronic personnel file. This ensures that all personnel activities and processes are performed quickly and easily.

WHMIS

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

www.ccohs.ca

http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/legisl/intro_whmis.html


Occupational Health and Safety Act
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) Regulation


What are the duties under WHMIS?

Suppliers, employers and workers all have specified responsibilities in the Hazardous Products Act.

Suppliers: Canadian suppliers are those who sell or import products. When this product is considered a "controlled product" according to the WHMIS legislation, a supplier must label the product or container, and they must provide a material safety data sheet (MSDS) to their customers. The purpose of the labels is to clearly identify the contents of the hazardous material, and the MSDS is to explain what those hazards are.

Employers: Employers are required to establish education and training programs for workers exposed to hazardous products in the workplace. Employers must also make sure that the products are labelled and that an MSDS is present for each product and that they are readily available to workers.

Workers: Workers are required to participate in the training programs and to use this information to help them work safely with hazardous materials. They may also inform employers when labels on containers have been accidentally removed or if the label is no longer readable.

employee communication as record
http://www.lakenewsonline.com/news/x2111989787/More-questions-arise-from-termination

Former employees' allegations raise more questions about termination

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Photos

Lake Sun File Photo

The Camden County Courthouse

  

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By Joyce L. Miller

lakenewsonline.com

Posted Aug 05, 2011 @ 08:00 AM

Last update Aug 05, 2011 @ 09:38 AM

Camden County, Mo. —

A former Camden County employee alleges that a Camden County Commissioner acted inappropriately when the employee was placed on administrative leave and later terminated.

The allegations stem from an email incident the former employee and other sources said happened in mid-April when he inappropriately accessed and shared email correspondence belonging to another county employee.

Tony Beabout, a 5-year employee of the county's IT department, said well more than a month prior to being placed on administrative leave, he had informed Presiding Commissioner Kris Franken that he, without permission from his supervisor, had accessed an email account belonging to a family member who also works for the county and subsequently shared the information with a non-county employee.

Beabout said the email was of a personal nature and not related to county business.

Beabout said he went to Franken after accessing the email account because he became concerned that a courthouse “rumor mill” would start talking about it.

Beabout said the email incident was reported to Franken on/or about April 14. Beabout said he went to Franken on his own and was willing to accept punishment for his actions. At the time, Beabout alleged Franken did not take any disciplinary action. Beabout alleged Franken also talked to the family member whose email account was accessed and the non-county employee who the information in email was shared with.

Beabout said everyone (including the non-county employee) was told that it was not a punishable offense and no action would be taken.

The sequence of events is now in question.

From mid-April to July 1, Beabout said there was no mention of the email incident from Franken or any other members of the commission.

In late June, rumors began surfacing at the courthouse, and an anonymous tip led the Lake Sun to begin looking into the allegations about questions that were raised about misuse of email.

Commissioners Thom Gumm and Bev Thomas said they had no prior knowledge of any employee accessing another employee’s email account and sharing it with a non-county employee.

On June 30, Franken said he was "not sure about what you are alluding to with the email situation," in an email correspondence.

On July 1, shortly after the Lake Sun started making inquiries, Beabout said he was called in by the county commission.

During the meeting, he was placed on administrative leave for security reasons. Beabout said during the conversation, he was told that somehow the Lake Sun had found out about the situation and the county had to address it.

Beabout was asked to sign a document called the “last chance agreement” in order to save his job.

The agreement outlined Beabout’s alleged offenses, but the agreement that the Lake Sun has obtained does not indicate when he is supposed to have violated county policy. The agreement contains a detailed list of requirements that Beabout was expected to follow, including denying him the right to file any grievances or suits against Camden County.

The agreement states Beabout provided email information and records to a private citizen without authorization, abuse privileges associated with having administrative rights on the county system and breaching the security of the system without authority.

Beabout said he refused to sign the agreement based on the advice of his attorney. On July 29, he was terminated. The letter sent to him by the county commission states he was terminated not for the email issue, but for not signing the last chance agreement.

Beabout has filed for an appeal as allowed by Camden County personnel policies.

The hearing is expected to be held later this month.

In the meantime, the county commission has filed an official request with the Camden County Sheriff's Department to request a criminal investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Contact Lake Media Editorial Director Joyce L. Miller at joyce.miller@lakesunonline.com.

Copyright 2011 Serving Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks region including Osage Beach, Camdenton, Lake Ozark, Eldon and Sunrise Beach. Some rights reserved

employment policy research network

Employment Policy Research network

http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topics

Canada Employment and Labour Standards

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/labourstandards/Canada_Employment_and_Labour_Standards.htm

guide to Employment Standard Act

2. Record Keeping

Contents and retention of employee records:


http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pdf/es_guide.pdf

new york state government site search

new york state employee records search result

http://www.search.state.ny.us/search?sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&site=default_collection&q=employee+records

Routine Disclosure - HR web, employee records related

HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION
Information Routinely Disclosed
February 14, 2007
retrieved August 4, 2011

http://www.toronto.ca/cap/pdf/human_resources.pdf

.
.
Internal Job postings
External Job postings

Employee information including, employee
number, contact information, seniority
date, service information salary and
increment history from SAP
.
.
Employee History paper files  (H1201)
.
.
etc

Employee Status

City of Toronto,

Guidelines for Determining a Worker’s Employment Status –

Employee or Independent Contractor
retrieved on August 3, 2011

http://insideto.toronto.ca/pen_payroll_empl_benefits/pdf/employment_status_independent.pdf

Contents and Retention of Employee Records

Contents and Retention of Employee Records in Ontario Ministry of Labour, Record Keeping, retrieved on August 3, 2011 http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/guide/records.php.

Record Keeping

• ISBN: 978-1-4249-3383-9 (HTML)
• ISBN: 978-1-4249-3382-2 (Print)
• ISBN: 978-1-4249-3384-6 (PDF)
• Revised: January 2009
• Content last reviewed: June 2009
• PDF Version [ 889 Kb / 146 pages | Download Adobe Reader ]

This guide is provided for your information and convenience only. It is not a legal document. For complete information, refer to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and its regulations.

All employers in Ontario are required to keep written records about each person they hire.

These records must be kept by the employer, or by someone else on behalf of the employer, for a certain period of time. The employer must also ensure that the records are readily available for inspection.

Contents and Retention of Employee Records

The employer must record and retain the following information for each employee.

• The employee's name, address and starting date of employment.
  This must be kept for three years after the employee stopped working for the employer.
• The employee's date of birth if the employee is a student under 18.
  This must be kept for either three years after the employee's 18^th birthday or three years after the employee stopped working for the employer, whichever happens first.
• The hours worked by the employee each day and week. 
  This must be kept for three years after the day or week of work. If an employee receives a fixed salary for each pay period and the salary does not change (except if the employee works overtime) the employer is only required to record:
  • the employee's hours in excess of those hours in the employee's regular work week;
    and
  • the number of hours in excess of eight per day (or in excess of the hours in the employee's regular work day, if it is more than eight hours).
  Employers are not required to record the hours of work for employees who are exempt from overtime pay and the provisions for maximum hours of work.
• Retention of written agreements to work excess hours or average overtime pay.
  An employer must retain copies of every agreement made with an employee to work excess hours or to average overtime pay for three years after the last day on which work was performed under the agreement.
• Retention of vacation time records.
  Employers are required to keep records of the vacation time earned since the date of hire but not taken before the start of the vacation entitlement year, the vacation time earned, and vacation time taken (if any) during the vacation entitlement year (or stub period).
• Retention of vacation pay records.
  The employer must also keep records of the vacation pay paid to the employee during the vacation entitlement year (and stub period, if any) and how that vacation pay was calculated. These records must be made no later than seven days after the start of the next vacation entitlement year (or first vacation entitlement year if the records relate to a stub period) or the first payday after the stub period or vacation entitlement year ends, whichever is later.
  
  Generally, this information must be kept for three years after the record of vacation time and pay was made.
• Information contained in an employee's wage statement.
  This must be kept for three years after the information was given to the employee.
• All the documents relating to an employee's pregnancy, parental, family medical, organ donor, personal emergency, declared emergency, or reservist leave.
  These must be kept for three years after the day the leave expired.
• Homeworker register.
  Employers who employ "homeworkers" are also required to keep a register containing the name, address and wage rate of the homeworker. This must be kept for three years after the homeworker stopped working for the employer.

What's in your employee files?