Does an employer have the right to withhold employees personnel file or copies of it upon termination?

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Does an employer have the right to withhold employees personnel file or copies of it upon termination?

Anonymous Aug 7, 2012 5 views 1 answers

Terminated after 30 years of employment with same company for reasons that i did not agree with. In essence it was a mattter of he said/she said. Had been written up in past but not in the last 6 months to a year as I can recall. All evaluations have been good each year.. Upon being terminated I asked for a copy of my personnel file or the file itself and was told "it is the property of the company and we cannot give it to you, so you do whatever you have to do to try and get it". Do I have any course of action I can take?

Kirk Angel · Accepted Answer · 2026-06-15T19:43:49+00:00

Yes your employer can withhold the file unless you work for the government. Personnel files are considered property of the employer in North Carolina. The employer is not required to give you access to the file. Generally the only time you can force a non-governmental employer to give you the file is via court process (subpoena/court order), but you have to have a valid lawsuit. You cannot file a lawsuit just to get the file.

Does an employer have the right to withhold employees personnel file or copies of it upon termination?

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