Connecticut: Employee Personnel File Access Requirements

Records covered and excluded

Connecticut's Personnel Files Act defines the file by function. It reaches
papers, documents, and reports — expressly including email and facsimiles — that
an employer used or uses to decide an employee's eligibility for employment,
promotion, added compensation, transfer, termination, or other disciplinary or
adverse action. Performance evaluations and reports on the employee's character,
credit, and work habits are covered.

The definition then carves out a specific list: stock-option and
management-bonus-plan records, medical records, third-party letters of reference
or recommendation (including from former employers), materials the employer uses
to plan future operations, information in separately maintained security files,
test information whose disclosure would invalidate the test, and documents being
developed or prepared for use in a civil, criminal, or grievance proceeding.
Medical records are handled separately under § 31-128c, which requires them to be
kept apart from the personnel file.

Response deadlines and inspection

A current employee who makes a written request must be allowed to inspect, and if
asked to copy, the file no more than seven business days later, during regular
business hours at or reasonably near the workplace. A former employee gets ten
business days, at a location the parties agree on; if they cannot agree, the
employer may instead mail a copy within the ten days.

The employer does not have to let the file leave the premises and may require a
designated official to be present during inspection. Two faster copy duties stand
apart from the inspection right: the employer must give the employee a copy of any
disciplinary-action documentation within one business day of imposing it, and a
copy of any termination notice immediately.

Copies and cost

On a written request that reasonably identifies the materials, the employer must
provide a copy of all or part of the file within a reasonable time and may charge
a fee reasonably related to the cost of supplying the documents. There is no
free-copy right and no tenure threshold — the copy duty applies whenever a valid
written request identifies the records.

Correction, rebuttal, and enforcement

If an employee disagrees with information in the file, the employee and employer
may agree to remove or correct it. If they cannot agree, the employee may submit
a written statement of position. That statement stays in the file and must
accompany any later transmittal or disclosure of the disputed material to a third
party — a durable rebuttal right, not merely a note the employer may discard.
Disciplinary actions, termination notices, and performance evaluations must each
carry a clear, conspicuous notice that the employee can submit such a statement.

Enforcement runs through the Labor Department. The Labor Commissioner may
investigate a complaint and issue subpoenas, and the Attorney General, on the
Commissioner's complaint, sues to recover a civil penalty of up to $500 for a
first violation and up to $1,000 for each later violation as to a given employee
or former employee.

What trips people up

The request must be in writing. Unlike a few states that allow a verbal first
step, Connecticut ties both the seven-day and ten-day clocks to a written
request.

The former-employee right has two separate one-year features that are easy to
confuse. The employer must keep the file for at least one year after termination,
and the former worker's written request must arrive within that same one-year
window. Miss the window and the statutory access right lapses.

Inspection is capped at twice per calendar year. The Act is an access-and-rebuttal
law, not a guaranteed-amendment law: the employer must file the employee's written
statement, but is not required to change a disputed entry it stands behind.

Common questions

Does my written rebuttal follow the file to a background-check company?

If the disputed material is transmitted or disclosed to a third party, your
written statement must go with it. That is one of the stronger features of the
Connecticut statute.

Can my employer make me review the file in a supervisor's office?

Yes. The employer can keep the file on its premises and require inspection in the
presence of a designated official, and need not let you remove the file.

Is there a deadline to get a copy of my termination notice?

Yes, and it is faster than the general rule. The employer must give you a copy of
a documented termination notice immediately, and a copy of any disciplinary-action
documentation within one business day.

Statutes and sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-128a(1), (5): definitions of "employee" and "personnel
  file," including the exclusion list —
  official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-128b: seven- and ten-business-day deadlines, one-year
  retention and request window, disciplinary/termination copy duties —
  official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-128d, 31-128e: on-premises inspection controls and the
  written rebuttal right —
  official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-128g, 31-128h, 31-128j: copy right and fee, twice-a-year
  cap, and Labor Commissioner subpoena power —
  official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-69a(b)-(c): civil penalty for chapter 563a violations and
  Attorney General enforcement —
  official text (accessed July 13, 2026).