New York joins Massachusetts enabling current and former employees to access their personnel records. Under the newly added Section 210-b to Bill S3460 of the New York Labor Law, employers are advised to take the necessary steps to ensure compliance for timely access to personnel records.
It’s a well-known fact that Human Resources actually writes about you the minute you step out of the conference room. If your manager secretly documented your unhealthy obsession for coffee runs that took over your productivity, you have no legal right to see it. The document very well hibernates in some heavily password-protected digital vault like a burn book.
It seems that the state of New York has signed into law a bill that will provide private and public sector employees a right to access and dispute their personnel records. This piece of law takes into effect on November 8, 2026, i.e. 60 days following the signing of the bill on September 9, 2026.
New York Labor Law: Newly added Section 210-b to S3460
The law gives employers ten business days to notify an employee of any information in their personnel record. This could be information that has been used or may be used to negatively affect t...