NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1975 SESSION
CHAPTER 257
HOUSE BILL 133
AN ACT TO PROTECT THE RIGHT OF PRIVACY OF STATE EMPLOYEES BY LIMITING ACCESS TO PERSONNEL RECORDS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. A new Article 9 is added to G.S. Chapter 126 to read as follows:
"Article 9.
"The Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records.
"§ 126-24. Personnel files of State employees shall not be subject to inspection and examination as authorized by G.S. 132-6.
"§ 126-25. Each department, agency, institution, commission and bureau of the State shall maintain a record of each of its employees, showing the following information with respect to each such employee: name, age, date of original employment or appointment to the State service, current position title, current salary, date and amount of most recent increase or decrease in salary, date of most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation, or other change in position classification, and the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned. Subject only to rules and regulations for the safekeeping of the records, adopted by the State Personnel Board, every person having custody of such records shall permit them to be inspected and examined and copies thereof made by any person during regular business hours. Any person who is denied access to any such record for the purpose of inspecting, examining or copying the same, shall have a right to compel compliance with the provisions of this section by application to a court of competent jurisdiction for a writ of mandamus or other appropriate relief.
"§ 126-26. All other information contained in a State employee's personnel file is confidential and shall not be open for inspection and examination except to the following persons:
(1) the employee, or his properly authorized agent, who may examine his own personnel file in its entirety except for (a) letters of reference solicited prior to employment, or (b) information concerning a medical disability, mental or physical, that a prudent physician would not divulge to a patient. An employee's medical record may be disclosed to a licensed physician designated in writing by the employee;
(2) the supervisor of the employee;
(3) members of the General Assembly who may inspect and examine personnel records under the authority of G.S. 120-19;
(4) a party by authority of a proper court order may inspect and examine a particular confidential portion of a State employee's personnel file; and
(5) an official of an agency of the federal government, State government or any political subdivision thereof. Such an official may inspect any personnel records when such inspection is deemed by the department head of the employee whose record is to be inspected as necessary and essential to the pursuance of a proper function of said agency; provided, however, that such information shall not be divulged for purposes of assisting in a criminal prosecution, nor for purposes of assisting in a tax investigation.
"§ 126-27. An employee who objects to material in his file may place in his file a statement relating to the material he considers to be inaccurate or misleading. An employee who objects to material in his file because he considers it inaccurate or misleading may seek the removal of such material from his file in accordance with the grievance procedure of that department, including appeal to the State Personnel Board.
"§ 126-28. The State Personnel Board shall prescribe such rules and regulations as it deems necessary to implement the provisions of this Article.
"§ 126-29. Any public official or employee who shall knowingly and willfully permit any person to have access to or custody or possession of any portion of a personnel file designated as confidential by this Article, unless such person is one specifically authorized by G.S. 126-26 to have access thereto for inspection and examination, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in the discretion of the court but not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00).
"§ 126-30. Any person, not specifically authorized by G.S. 126-26 to have access to a personnel file designated as confidential by this Article, who shall knowingly and willfully examine in its official filing place, remove or copy any portion of a confidential personnel file shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in the discretion of the court but not in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00)."
Sec. 2. This act shall become effective on January 1, 1976.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 12th day of May, 1975.