Connecticut Personnel Files Act: Access, Disputes, and Enforcement

The Connecticut Personnel Files Act, at Sections 31-128a through 31-128j of the Connecticut General Statutes, lets you inspect and copy your own personnel file, respond in writing to anything you disagree with, and receive disciplinary and termination paperwork on tight deadlines. It also limits who your employer can share those records with. Current employees and former employees both have access rights, on slightly different clocks.

How to Request Your File

The request has to be in writing. What happens next depends on whether you still work there.

If You Still Work There

Your employer must give you access within seven business days of receiving your written request. The inspection happens during regular business hours, at or reasonably near your workplace.¹ You can also copy the file.

There is a limit: employers do not have to allow more than two inspections per calendar year.² If you burn both early in the year, you wait until January. The employer can keep the file on its premises and can require that a designated company official be present while you review it.³

If You’ve Left the Job

You have one year from your last day of employment to submit a written request. Once the employer receives it, they have ten business days to respond.¹

Location is negotiable. You and the employer should agree on where the inspection happens. If you can’t agree, the employer can satisfy the requirement by mailing you a copy within those ten business days.¹ Useful if you’ve moved out of state.

The Act covers every employer operating in Connecticut and every current or former employee, including managers. Applicants who were never hired are not covered.⁴

What’s In the File and What Isn’t

A personnel file is any papers, documents, reports, emails, or faxes an employer uses or has used to make decisions about your hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, termination, or discipline. Evaluations and reports about your character, credit, and work habits are included.⁴

Some things are excluded from that definition and are not part of what you can inspect under the file rules:

Medical records prepared by a physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist. These are governed separately (see below).
Security files tied to investigations of losses, misconduct, or suspected crimes, as long as they’re kept separately and not used for employment decisions.
Stock option or bonus plan records.
Third-party reference letters.
Documents used for future operational planning.
Test materials whose disclosure would compromise the test.
Documents being prepared for legal or grievance proceedings.⁴

Discipline and Termination Paperwork

You don’t have to ask for these. When an employer takes documented disciplinary action, it must give you a copy of the documentation within one business day. If it terminates you, the notice of termination must be provided immediately.¹

Each documented disciplinary action, termination notice, and performance evaluation must also carry a clear, conspicuous statement telling you that you can respond in writing to anything you disagree with.⁵ An employer that leaves that notice off its disciplinary paperwork is out of compliance regardless of anything else.

Disputing What’s In Your File

If you disagree with something in your file, the first step is to try to agree with the employer on removing or correcting it. If you reach agreement, that resolves it.⁵

If you can’t agree, you can submit a written statement explaining your side. The employer must keep that statement as a permanent part of your personnel file, and it must accompany the file any time the employer transmits or discloses it to a third party.⁵ Whoever sees the negative material also sees your response to it.

Who Else Can See Your File

Your employer cannot disclose individually identifiable information from your personnel file or medical records to anyone outside the organization without your written consent.⁶ There is no general business-need exception.

Limited information can be shared without consent in narrow situations:

Verifying your dates of employment, job title, and salary to an inquiring party.
Sharing with a third party that maintains employment records or performs HR services for the employer.
Responding to a subpoena, court order, search warrant, government audit, or the defense of a personnel-related complaint.
Providing your home address and attendance records to a law enforcement agency.
Informing your physician of a medical condition you may not be aware of, or responding to an apparent emergency.
Meeting obligations under federal, state, or local law.
Sharing information required by a union agreement.⁶

If your employer asks for written authorization to release medical records, it must tell you that you can inspect and correct those records, that you can refuse authorization, and what happens if you refuse.⁶

Medical Records

You can ask to inspect them by written request. The inspection happens during regular business hours at or near the workplace, and it’s conducted by a physician you choose, or a physician the employer chooses with your consent. Employers must keep your medical records for at least three years after you leave.⁷

If Your Employer Won’t Comply

File a complaint with the Connecticut Department of Labor. The Labor Commissioner has subpoena power to compel the employer to produce your file and to summon witnesses. If the employer resists the subpoena, the Commissioner can petition Superior Court to enforce it.³ The Act itself does not set out a schedule of monetary penalties for violations.