4.1. ERMUSR 10-8-2019 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ACCESS TO PERSONNEL RECORDS Minnesota Law provides employees with certain rights relating to their personnel records. (See Minnesota Statutes Sections 181.960 to 181.965). The Utilities will comply with all requirements of the law. As a new or continuing employee of the Utilities you are put on notice of the following rights and remedies provided by Minnesota law. 1. Employees, upon making a good faith written request, have the right to review their personnel record, as defined by the statute, up to once every six months. The record must be made available during the Utilities' normal hours of operation, but not necessarily the employee's normal working hours, and at the employee's place of employment or other nearby location. The Utilities may require that the review be done in the presence of a Utilities representative. If employees so choose, they may make a written request for a copy of the personnel record which will be provided free of charge. 2. Former employees, upon making a good faith written request, have the right to receive a copy of their personnel record, as defined by the statutes, once each year after separation of employment for as long as the personnel record is maintained. The personnel records must be provided free of charge. 3. The Utilities must comply with the written request to review or provide a copy of the personnel records no later than seven working days after receipt of the written request, or no later than fourteen days after the receipt of the request if the personnel record is located outside of the state. 4. Employees and former employees have the right to submit a written position statement to the personnel record if the record contains any disputed information which the employee/former employee and the Utilities cannot agree to remove or revise. The written position statement may not exceed five written pages. The written position statement must be included along with the disputed information in the record for as long as the disputed infoiination is maintained in the personnel record. A copy of the written position statement must also be provided to any other person who receives a copy of the disputed information from the Utilities after the written position statement is submitted. 5. If the Utilities and the employee have fully complied with the requirements related to disputed information, which are described in the paragraph immediately above, no communication by the employee or the Utilities of information contained in the personnel records may be made the subject of any common law civil action for libel, slander, or defamation, unless the Utilities communicates information with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of its falsity. 6. If the Utilities refuses to comply with the personnel record statutes, employees and former employees may bring a civil cause of action seeking to compel compliance and may recover actual damages plus costs for a violation of the statutes. In addition, the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry can enforce the statutes and seek additional remedies and impose fines. September 2018 70