TLD's General Counsel Blog

Can I Maintain Personnel Files Electronically and Destroy the Originals?

Labor Law Corner
OK to Convert Paper Personnel Files
to Electronic Records

Jessica Hawthorne Employment Law Counsel

Can I maintain personnel files electronically and destroy the originals?

There is no law that specifically prohibits electronic retention of personnel files, but there are many rules regarding how the files must or can be reproduced, as well as destroyed.

Electronic Records

Employee Complaints of Workplace Safety are Protected Activities

California Labor Code Section 6400 et seq. mandates that California employers provide a workplace that is safe and healthful for its employees.  California Code of Civil Procedure Section 527.8 authorizes an employer to seek a Temporary Restraining Order and injunctive relief against an individual when there has been a credible threat of workplace violence. Consistent with these employer obligations and remedies, an employer is expected to take reasonable steps to address threatened and actual violence in the workplace.  When it fails to do so and, in fact, takes adverse employment action against an employee complaining of violence, it becomes vulnerable to liability.  This was the lesson learned by the employer in the recent case of Franklin v. The Monadnock Company.