The Illinois state legislature has once again amended the Personnel Records Review Act (the “Act”), imposing new obligations on employers navigating personnel record requests.  Effective January 1, 2025, HB 3763 requires those responding to such requests to update current procedures to make way for these new requirements.

New Employee Requirements

The amendments clarify that all requests under the Act must be made in writing, which includes electronic communications such as email or text messages.  Each request must:

1. be made at reasonable intervals, unless otherwise provided in a collective bargaining agreement;
2. be made to a person responsible for maintaining the employer’s personnel records, including the employer’s human resources department, payroll department, the employee’s supervisor or department manager, or to an individual as provided in the employer’s written policy;
3. identify what personnel records the employee is requesting or if the employee is requesting all of the records allowed to be requested under the Act;
4. specify if the employee is requesting to inspect, copy, or receive copies of the records;
5. specify whether records be provided in hardcopy or in a reasonable and commercially available electronic format;
6. specify whether inspection, copying, or receipt of copies will be performed by that employee’s representative, including family members, lawyers, union stewards, other union officials, or translators; and
7. if the records being requested include medical information and medical records, include a signed waiver to release medical information and medical records to that employee’s specific representative.

New Employer Obligations and Protections

If a request is submitted in line with the above requirements, then employees are entitled to the following categories of documents:

1. any personnel documents which are, have been or are intended to be used in determining that employee’s qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, discharge, or other disciplinary action, except as provided in Section 10 of the Act;
2. any employment-related contracts or agreements that the employer maintains are legally binding on the employee;
3. any employee handbooks that the employer made available to the employee or that the employee acknowledged receiving; and
4. any written employer policies or procedures that the employer contends the employee was subject to and that concern qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, discharge, or other disciplinary action.

While the first category remains largely the same as under the current version of the Act, it now also entitles employees to the production of personnel documents relating to an employee’s benefits.  Employers should take special notice that the last three categories are all new.  These additions represent significant changes to the Act, broadening inspection rights to items outside a typical personnel file.  Employers should take care to maintain past and current handbooks and policies to which employees may have been subject.

As before, employers must produce requested documents to which employees are entitled within seven working days after receipt of the request.  However, if the employer can reasonably show that such deadline cannot be met, the employer may have an additional seven calendar days to comply.

The Act clarifies that employers must grant at least two requests from an individual or their representative in a calendar year for the inspection, copy, or production of records.  In granting the request, the employer is not obligated to categorize responsive records in any specific manner.

An employer may still charge a fee for providing a copy of the requested record. However, the fee is limited to the actual cost of duplicating the requested record and may not include the imputed costs of time spent duplicating the information, the purchase or rental of copying machines, the purchase or rental of computer equipment, the use of software, or any other similar expenses.

Section 10 of the Act still contains certain exceptions to inspection of certain documents by employees.  In addition to the already existing exceptions, the Act now will protect from inspection an employer’s trade secrets, client lists, sales projections, and financial data.

Enforcement

Similar to other labor and employment statutes in Illinois, the Act now provides a mechanism by which an employee may commence an action in circuit court if the Illinois Department of Labor does not resolve an employee’s administrative complaint regarding a violation of the Act within 180 calendar days. 

Damages under the Act remain the same; the court awards the prevailing party actual damages plus costs. For willful and knowing violations, the prevailing party is entitled to additional damages of $200 and reasonable attorneys’ fees. Failure to comply with the Act may be punishable by contempt.  Any employer or their agent who violates the Act is guilty of a petty offense.