No federal law gives an employee the right to access and inspect their personnel file maintained by their employer—but some state laws do. Many states require public employers to allow employees to access and inspect their personnel files—and some states require private employers to do so as well.

Some states limit an employee’s right to access and inspect their personnel file to certain documents—and some states require an employer to provide employees with certain documents (such as a disciplinary document) within a certain number of days after it is placed in the employee’s personnel file (known as an adverse-action notice).

Laws regarding whether employees have the right to access and inspect their personnel file—and if so, the circumstances under which they may do so—are generally located in a state’s statutes.

In Kansas, there is no specific statute that grants all employees the right to access and inspect their personnel files. However, certain public sector employees may have this right under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA). KORA allows individuals to request access to public records, which can include personnel files of public employees, subject to certain exemptions and restrictions. For private sector employees, access to personnel files is generally at the discretion of the employer, unless there is an applicable collective bargaining agreement or company policy that provides such a right. Kansas does not have a statute that requires private employers to provide employees with adverse-action notices or other specific documents from their personnel files.