Copyright© 1999 by School Services of California, Inc.
Employees Attempt to Gain Greater Excess to Personnel
Files
During the final week before the Legislature adjourns for the year, it's not unusual for numerous bills to be amended to contain significant policy changes that have never been discussed in a public hearing. Such was the case with legislation that is intended to give public employees greater access to their personnel files.
SB 172 (Escutia, D-Montebello) was originally introduced to give public employees greater access to their personnel files under specified circumstances. Specifically, employees could request corrections and deletions of materials in their personnel files that are not accurate, relevant, timely, or complete, and the bill also requires employers, within 30 days of receiving the request, to either make the requested changes or place a written explanation of the reasons for not granting the request in the employee's personnel file. Employers, upon discovery, would also be required to remove adverse material from an employee's personnel file that has not been used as part of an official act of discipline of the employee within the past two years.
The provisions of SB 172 should not have applied to community college employees because existing law, Education Code Section 87031, already provides a procedure for employees to inspect their personnel files and review and comment on any materials contained therein which may serve as a basis for affecting the status of their employment. The same procedure also applies to K-12 employees.
The bill was amended to exempt K-12 employees, however, community college employees are still affected by SB 172. Another bill - AB 344 was highjacked at the last minute to exempt public higher education institutions - including community colleges - from the provisions of SB 172.
AB 344 (Knox, D-Los Angeles) permits institutions of higher education to provide academic employees with access to academic peer review records in a form that does not reveal the identity of any of the reviewers. Also, materials within an academic employee's file may not be removed if it is a part of an academic performance evaluation. This provision provides an exception to the language contained in SB 172 that would have allowed employees to remove adverse materials from their personnel files that have not been used as part of an official act of discipline of the employee within two years.
AB 344 was double joined to SB 172, meaning that both bills must be signed by the Governor to become effective. They are currently on the Governor's desk for his consideration.
-- Arnold Bray