Legal Question in Employment Law in Oregon

Re: My Personnel File

An Oregon statute gives employees the right to review their personnel files and to receive certified copies. For purposes of the statute, personnel records are defined by how they are used rather than how they are kept. In other words, the records an employee is entitled to are those "that are used or have been used to determine the employee�s qualification for employment, promotion, additional compensation or employment termination or other disciplinary action." ORS 652.750. The employer has 45 days in which to provide the records and may charge for the records, but only in such amount that is reasonably calculated to recover the actual cost of producing the records.

A written request should be made to review or receive copies of personnel records, with a citation to the statute. It is always better to ask specifically for different kinds of records (such as "all documents used to make the termination decision") rather than generally asking for all personnel records.