West Virginia Northern Community College
ACCESS TO PERSONNEL FILES
Effective Date: March 25, 2004
Date Approved by WVNCC Board of Governors: March 25, 2004
Authority Reference: WV Code Section 29B-1-4; HEPC Series 8, Section 8
Replaces previous policy dated: WVNCC Policy No. 4.2.31 effective January 3, 2000
Rule:
The College maintains individual official personnel files for each employee in the
course of regular business for employment, benefit and payroll purposes. Personnel
and payroll files are maintained in the Human Resources office area and the official
custodian of these records is the Human Resources Representative.
An employee may have access to his/her personnel file when the College is normally
open for business. An employee may examine his/her own file and the contents
therein with the following exception:
Materials which were gathered with the employee’s prior agreement to
forfeit his/her right of access, such as some references.
To maintain confidentiality of employee personnel and payroll records, no individual,
private or public agency external to the College will be permitted access to any
employee’s personnel file and information without the express, written consent of the
individual employee concerned, but with the following exceptions:
1. Information will be voluntarily provided to Federal or State agencies
responding to written requests when: the agency has jurisdiction to make the
particular inquiry; the information being sought is obtainable by subpoena;
and the appropriate College officials are satisfied that the information being
sought is actually pertinent to the agency’s inquiry.
2. Information is being requested by legal subpoena or other requirements by law
or court order.
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3. College supervisors, managers and officials will have access to an employee
official personnel file on the basis of a need to know. All persons examining a
file on the basis of a need to know must treat the contents of the file as
confidential, unless under a legal subpoena.
A representative of the custodian of records shall be present with the employee during
the review. The date, time and location of each review shall be recorded in the
personnel file.
A copy of any material in the personnel file, except as noted above, shall be provided
to an employee upon request. A small copy fee may be charged. Positive
identification of the employee must be established prior to providing access to the
personnel file. Documents may not be removed from a personnel file by the employee.
An employee may petition at any time for either the removal or addition of documents
to his/her own personnel file. The employer may require that employees schedule an
appointment to see the personnel file.
LKDzip/BOG Rules/Access to Personnel Files No Chg R zip
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