New York Grants Employees Broad Access to Personnel Records

New York employers should prepare for a significant expansion of employee rights regarding personnel records. Effective November 9, 2026, Senate Bill 3460 creates a comprehensive statutory right for employees to access their personnel records and challenge the contents of those records.

Previously, New York had no general law giving employees the right to inspect or obtain copies of their own personnel files. New York employers had various recordkeeping obligations, but none of the statutory provisions entitled employees to access their records. S3460 changes that, bringing New York into line with states like Massachusetts, Illinois, and Connecticut that already guarantee employees access to their personnel files.

Who Is Covered

The statute applies broadly to any public or private employer, as well as agents of any such employer, regardless of the number of employees. “Employee” is also broadly defined to include both current and former employees.

Key Employer Obligations Under the Law

• Notification of Negative Information. Most significantly, employers must notify an employee within ten days of placing any information in the employee’s personnel record that has been, is, or may be used to negatively affect the employee's qualification for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, or the possibility of disciplinary action.
• Right to Access and Copy. Upon receiving a written request, an employer must provide the employee with a copy of their personnel record, at no cost, within five business days. Employers are not required to allow more than two access requests per calendar year. However, any request made after an employee is notified about the addition of negative information does not count towards the limit of two requests.
• Right to Dispute and Respond. If an employee disagrees with any information in their personnel record, the employer and employee may mutually agree to correct or remove it. If no agreement is reached, the employee may submit a written statement explaining their position, which must be included in the personnel record and transmitted along with the disputed information whenever it is shared with a third party.
• Expungement of False Information. If an employer places information in a personnel record that the employer knew or should have known to be false, the employee must have recourse through an applicable collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”), other personnel procedure, or judicial process to have the information expunged. The law does not identify the intended scope of the “judicial process” referenced or whether it becomes an available forum of relief only if the employer does not provide another forum. But the law intends for employees to have some right to challenge the inclusion of information that was intentionally false or recklessly added.
• Retention Requirements. Employers must retain complete personnel records — without deletions or expungement — from the date of employment through three years after termination. This is a distinct requirement from the existing six-year payroll record retention obligation under Labor Law § 661 and the four-year workers’ compensation record retention under Workers’ Compensation Law § 131.
• Written Personnel Policy. If an employer elects to maintain a written personnel policy regarding terms and conditions of employment, that policy must be continuously maintained at the office where personnel matters are administered.

What Constitutes a “Personnel Record”

The statute defines “personnel record” expansively as any record kept by an employer that identifies an employee, to the extent that the record is used, has been used, or may affect or be used relative to the employee’s qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, or disciplinary action. The definition specifically includes records held by third-party contractors who maintain personnel records on the employer’s behalf. While many employers may immediately look to the personnel files they maintain as the complete scope of a “personnel record,” the definition is not so limited. Instead, it can include items such as emails or text messages that traditionally have never made it into a personnel file but may have been used to make employment-related decisions.

At minimum, this law requires the following information to be maintained for each employee in a personnel record:

• Name, address, date of birth, job title, and description;
• Rate of pay and any other compensation;
• Starting date of employment;
• Job applications, resumes, and other employment inquiry submissions;
• All employee performance evaluations, including evaluation documents;
• Written warnings of substandard performance;
• Lists of probationary periods;
• Waivers signed by the employee;
• Copies of dated termination notices;
• Any other documents relating to disciplinary action.

Notably, the definition excludes information of a personal nature about a person other than the requesting employee, but only where disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of that other person’s privacy.

Anti-Retaliation Protections

This new law includes a robust anti-retaliation provision prohibiting employers from discharging, threatening, penalizing, or otherwise discriminating against or retaliating against an employee who exercises rights under the new section. The anti-retaliation protections explicitly encompass threats to contact or actual contact with federal immigration authorities, or threats to report an employee’s suspected citizenship or immigration status — mirroring the anti-retaliation language in other recent New York Labor Law provisions, including the whistleblower protection statute.

Enforcement and Penalties

A violation of the substantive provisions of this law is punishable by fines of not less than $500 and not more than $2,500, enforced by the New York Attorney General.

What Employers Should Do Now

While the law becomes effective on November 9, employers in New York as well as employers outside of New York with New York-based employees should immediately begin preparing for compliance:

• Conduct an audit. Because of the broad definition of personnel records, it is essential to understand (1) the scope of personnel records maintained; (2) the location of personnel records, including whether they are held by outside contractors (including payroll processing companies, staffing agencies, vendors that conduct background checks, etc.); and (3) the full list of personnel who may be responsible for adding any information to an employee’s personnel file or making negative employment-related decisions.
• Develop a response protocol. Prepare procedures for timely responding to employee access requests, including identifying personnel records, reviewing for and redacting third-party personnel information, and tracking the number of requests per employee per calendar year.
• Implement a notification process. Create a mechanism to notify employees promptly whenever negative information is “added” to their personnel file.
• Review retention policies. Ensure personnel records are retained for at least three years after an employee’s termination, without deletion or expungement.
• Train Human Resources staff and managers. Ensure that personnel responsible for maintaining employee records and making employment-related decisions understand the new obligations under the law and are familiar with any newly developed policies and procedures for complying.
• Review CBAs. Unionized employers should evaluate whether existing CBAs provide at least substantially similar personnel record access rights. Where they do not, employers should expect the statute to impose additional obligations.

Failure to properly prepare could result in substantial penalties. Experienced counsel can assist in ensuring compliance with these new requirements.