New York’s Personnel Records Law Requires Employers to Rethink Their Current Practices

Beginning November 8, 2026, New York employers will have five business days to provide a current or former employee with a copy of the employee’s personnel record following a written request. That short deadline is only one part of a new law that will change how employers create, maintain, and communicate information about their employees.

The law, which adds Section 210-b to the New York Labor Law, applies to public and private employers of all sizes. It gives employees a statutory right to access a broadly defined category of personnel records, requires notice when certain negative information is added to those records, and allows employees to place a written response in the file when they disagree with what the employer has documented.

In the weeks to come, employers should address the impacts of this new law before it becomes effective. The stakes for noncompliance are not merely administrative. The law authorizes enforcement by the New York Attorney General and penalties of up to $2,500 per violation, making advance preparation particularly important.

The Expansive Scope of Personnel Records

The new law broadly defines what constitutes an employee’s personnel record. The statute identifies a number of covered records, including applications, compensation information, performance evaluations, written warnings, probationary records, disciplinary documents, and termination notices.

Critically, it also includes records that are used, have been used, or may be used in decisions involving the employee’s employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, or discipline.

This creates an immediate issue for employers whose employment records are divided among HR systems, supervisor files, email accounts, payroll platforms, and paper records. A five-business-day response period leaves little time to determine where those records are located, who controls them, and whether they contain information that should not be disclosed.

Employers Have an Affirmative Notice Requirement to Employees

Beyond the codified right to access a personnel file, employers must now give employees written notice within ten days if information has been placed in their personnel file that is, has been, or may be used to negatively affect the employee’s employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, or possible discipline.

This creates a new administrative and documentation burden that implicates multiple levels of an employer’s operations. While the exact contents of the notice are not prescribed, employers will have an obligation to prove that notice was provided to the employee about the information added to their file. This will require deliberate coordination between front-line supervisors, HR and business leadership to ensure that documentation and the requisite notice are properly issued, retained, and maintained.

Employees Have an Opportunity to Provide a Rebuttal

Under the new law, if employees dispute information in their personnel records, they may ask the employer to correct or remove the information. If the parties cannot resolve the dispute, the employee may submit a written statement explaining the employee’s position, which, by law, must be kept in the personnel record and must accompany the disputed document(s) whenever the personnel file is transferred to a third party.

Record Retention Timelines Must Be Monitored

The law also imposes new record-retention requirements. Employers must retain a complete personnel record during employment and for three years after the employment relationship ends.

Employers should compare the new requirement against their existing destruction schedules. They should also consider how corrections will be handled when an employee successfully challenges information, particularly because the statute speaks both to maintaining complete records and to correcting, removing, or expunging disputed material in specified circumstances.

Now Is the Time to Prepare

The November 8 effective date is approaching quickly, and compliance will require more than a simple policy revision. Employers should identify where personnel records are maintained, establish a process for responding to requests, and ensure that supervisors understand their role in documenting performance issues and providing required notices.

The new law also serves as a reminder that personnel records matter. Performance evaluations, disciplinary memoranda, written warnings, and similar documents should accurately reflect the underlying facts and business reasons supporting employment decisions. Beginning November 8, employers should assume that employees may review many of those records and respond to them in writing. Employers that take the time now to review their personnel record procedures and documentation practices will be better positioned to comply with the law and defend future employment decisions.

At Bousquet Holstein, our Labor and Employment Practice Group is available to assist employers with handbook updates, personnel file policies, record-retention practices, and compliance procedures before the law takes effect.