September 2024 Iowa Q&A roundup

Q       What are the guidelines for when employees, current or former, request a copy of their personnel file, and what files are required to be provided upon request?

Whether employees have the right to their employee file is subject to state law. In most states, current employees have the right to review their entire file, which would include résumés, discipline, benefits, wages, and similar items. Files that would normally be confidential, such as witness statements in a complaint, would be excluded. 

In Iowa, employees may not have access to reference material, and if you do employee psychological testing, raw test data aren’t provided. It’s more variable for past employees, though. In many states, past employees have the right to access their file for a limited time, but in Iowa, they have no legal right to their file.

Q       A pregnant employee has requested further accommodations after already having been granted several but has refused to provide a doctor’s note after multiple requests. The employee has also refused to complete most of her normal tasks, increasing the workload on others. Can we request that she work part-time for the remainder of her pregnancy?