Policy 3.3.1 - Personnel Files

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The Director of Human Resources, or designee, shall maintain all employees’ personnel files. The
College shall maintain, in individual personnel files, only those records which are required or
necessary and relevant to accomplish legitimate personnel administrative needs.

I. PUBLIC INFORMATION

The following information on each college employee is public information and shall be
open for inspection:

A. Name;
B. Age;
C. Date of original employment or appointment;
D. The terms of any contract by which the employee is employed whether written or
oral, past and current, to the extent that the board has the written contract or a record
of the oral contract in its possession;
E. Current position;
F. Title;
G. Current salary (includes pay, benefits, incentives, bonuses, deferred compensation
and all other forms of compensation);
H. Date and amount of each increase or decrease in salary with the College;
I. Date and type of each promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, dismissal, or
other change in position or classification with the College;
J. Date and general description of the reasons for each promotion with the College;
K. Date and type of each dismissal, suspension, or demotion for disciplinary reasons.
If the disciplinary action resulted in a grievance filed with the Board of Trustees,
written notice of the Boards final decision setting forth the specific acts or
omissions that are the basis of the dismissal; and
L. The office or station to which the employee is currently assigned.

Any person, including College personnel, may have access to the information listed above
for the purpose of inspection, examination and copying during regular business hours
Monday through Friday. Access to personnel files may be arranged by contacting the
Director of Human Resources for an appointment. If an individual desires to have a
reproduced copy of the information, the College may require a reasonable duplication fee.
All College personnel shall be entitled to one (1) free copy of their personnel file.

II. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

All information other than the information listed in Section I is confidential and shall not
be open for inspection and examination except to the following persons:
A. The employee, applicant for employment, former employee, or his/her properly
authorized agent, who may examine his/her own personnel file at all reasonable
times in its entirety except for letters of reference solicited prior to employment;
B. The President, other supervisory personnel and legal counsel for the President;
C. The Board of Trustees and the Board’s attorney;

D. A party by authority of a subpoena or proper court order may inspect and examine
a particular, confidential portion of an employee’s personnel file;
E. An official of any agency of the state or federal government, or any political
subdivision of the state, may inspect any portion of a personnel file when such
information is deemed by the College to be necessary and essential to the pursuance
of a proper function of the inspecting agency, but no information shall be divulged
for the purposes of assisting in a criminal prosecution nor for purposes of assisting
in a tax investigation.
F. The President may, in consulting, or at the direction with the Board of Trustees,
inform any person or corporation of any promotion, demotion, suspension,
reinstatement, transfer, separation, dismissal, employment or non-employment of
any applicant, employee or former employee and the reasons for such action and
may allow the personnel file of the person or any portion to be released or inspected
to any person or corporation provided that the Board of Trustees has determined
that the release of the information is essential to maintaining the integrity of the
Board of Trustees or to maintaining the level or quality of services provided by the
College. Prior to releasing the information or making the file or any portion
available to a person or corporation pursuant to this subsection, the President shall
prepare a memorandum setting forth the circumstances which s/he and the Board
deem to require the disclosure and the information to be disclosed. The
memorandum shall be retained in the files of the President and shall be a public
record.

Each individual requesting access to confidential personnel information will be
required to submit satisfactory proof of identity.

III. OBJECTING TO RECORDS IN PERSONNEL FILE

An employee, former employee or applicant for employment who objects to materials in
his/her personnel file may place in the file a statement relating to the materials the
employee considers to be inaccurate or misleading. An individual may seek the removal
of material(s) from his/her file through Policy 3.3.8 – Grievance.

IV. MEDICAL AND IMMIGRATION INFORMATION

Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, all medical information, including
workers’ compensation history and requests for reasonable accommodation for a disability,
medical insurance information and medical documentation for FMLA and other types of
leaves related to an employee’s medical condition shall be kept separate from an
employee’s personnel file and shall be disclosed only as follows:

A. To supervisors who may be told only about work restrictions for an applicant or
employee;
B. To first aid and safety officials where emergency treatment might be required; and
C. To government officials charged with enforcement of disability law.

All I-9 and other immigration status records shall be kept in a separate file not included
within an employee’s personnel file.

Adopted: June 12, 2019
Legal Reference: N.C.G.S. 115D-27 through -28