You find out in the conference room.
Someone from HR slides a folder across the table and starts reading. A write-up from March you never saw. A complaint from a client nobody mentioned to you. A performance summary that doesn’t sound like any conversation you’ve ever had with your manager. Six years at this company, and you’re seeing all of it for the first time.
You ask for a copy. They tell you the file belongs to the company.
Until now, that answer was usually right. Unless your union contract said otherwise, or you were already in litigation and could get it in discovery, New York gave employees no general right to see what their employer had written about them. You found out at the end, or you never found out at all.
That changes on November 8.
What the Law Does
On September 9, 2026, Governor Hochul signed S3460 into law as Chapter 293. It adds Section 210-b to the Labor Law and takes effect on the sixtieth day after signing: November 8, 2026.
It covers private and public employers. It covers current employees and former employees, so the right doesn’t disappear when you’re walked out. And it does three things that matter.
You can ask for your file and get a copy. Your employer must tell you when it puts something damaging in there. And you can put your own answer into the record, where it stays.
What’s Actually in the File
The statute defines a personnel record as anything your employer keeps that identifies you, to the extent it’s used, has been used, or may affect or be used regarding your qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation, or discipline.
That definition turns on what a document is used for, not on where it’s filed. It reaches records held by an outside vendor under contract with your employer, so an outsourced HR platform isn’t a hiding place.
The statute then lists what must be included, and says plainly that the list isn’t a ceiling. Evaluations. Written warnings of substandard performance. Probationary periods. Waivers you signed. Dated termination notices. And any other documents relating to disciplinary action.
That last one is where most cases live. The document that decides a case is rarely the tidy annual review. It’s the memo to file, the write-up drafted two days after you complained, the note about a conversation that didn’t happen the way someone wrote it down.
One carve-out: the file doesn’t include personal information about someone other than you where disclosing it would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of that person’s privacy. Expect employers to lean on that language when coworker complaints are involved.
Five Business Days
Put your request in writing. Email is fine. The clock runs from the written request, so asking your manager in the hallway does nothing. Say you’re requesting a complete copy of your personnel record under Labor Law Section 210-b, date it, and keep a copy.
Your employer then has five business days to give you the file, at no cost.
It doesn’t have to let you review more than twice a year. But a review triggered by the employer adding negative information doesn’t count against those two. If your union contract already gives you access, the statute doesn’t override it, as long as your contract gives you at least substantially similar access.
One more deadline worth knowing. Your employer has to keep your complete file, without deletions, until three years after you leave. Former employees can still ask, and the statute sets no deadline for asking, but after three years there may be nothing left to produce. Don’t sit on it.
The Notice Requirement Is the Part That Matters
Access will get the headlines. The notice requirement is what actually changes these cases.
Your employer must notify you within ten days of putting anything in your file that is, has been, or may be used to negatively affect your qualifications or the possibility that you’ll be disciplined.
Think about what that does to the oldest pattern in employment law. You complain about harassment, or ask for an accommodation, or report something illegal. Nothing visible happens. Months later you’re fired, and the company produces a thick file documenting performance problems you’re seeing for the first time. They say the problems were longstanding and well documented. You say the documentation appeared out of nowhere after you complained.
Starting in November, that file must be built in the open. If the write-ups are real, you should have heard about each one within ten days. If you never did, and they surface at your termination or in discovery, the employer has a problem that has nothing to do with whether the criticism was fair.
The edges aren’t clear yet. A written warning obviously counts. A performance improvement plan obviously counts. A mediocre review, or a manager’s email memorializing a conversation, is less obvious. The statute says, “may be used,” which reaches further than most employers would like. Courts will sort it out.
Your Answer Goes in the File Too
Disagree with something? You and your employer can agree to fix it or pull it. If you can’t agree, you can submit a written statement explaining your position, and it becomes part of your record.
Here’s the sentence nobody’s talking about. Your statement has to be included whenever that information is sent to a third party, as long as the original stays in the file. The write-up doesn’t get to travel alone.
So write it, and write it knowing a stranger may read it years from now. Short. Factual. Dates, names, what actually happened and what you were told at the time. Don’t argue about fairness and don’t editorialize about your manager. A calm, specific account written the same week is worth far more later than an angry one.
And if your employer put something in your file that it knew or should have known was false, you can go to court to have it expunged. That remedy is real, but it’s narrow. It’s about falsity the employer knew about, not about a criticism you think was unfair.
What It’s Worth, Honestly
A violation carries a fine of $500 to $2,500, and the statute says the Attorney General enforces it. There’s no express private right of action for an access or notice violation. If your employer ignores your request, Section 210-b on its face doesn’t hand you a lawsuit over the ignored request. The statute bars retaliation against anyone who exercises these rights and specifically names threats involving immigration status, but it doesn’t say how that provision gets enforced. That gap will be litigated.
None of which makes the law weak, and here’s the part employees should understand. The value of Section 210-b isn’t the fine. It’s evidence.
It gives you a lawful way to get the employer’s own version of your performance early, in writing, while the documents are still fresh and long before anyone sends out a litigation hold. A request that goes unanswered is itself a fact. A file produced in November that doesn’t match the file produced in discovery a year later is a serious problem for the company. And a write-up your employer never told you about, when a statute required notice in ten days, is a hard document to defend in front of a jury.
When to Ask
Ask before you sign a severance agreement, because you’re being asked to release claims and you should know what the company has written about you first.
Ask when the temperature changes. Meetings that suddenly have a note-taker. Feedback that was verbal for years and is suddenly in writing. A document you’re asked to sign about a conversation you remember differently.
And ask if you’ve complained about something. Discrimination, harassment, unpaid wages, safety, fraud. What goes into the file after a complaint is what decides retaliation cases.
One Caveat
Hochul signed this while saying the bill was ambiguous, and she cut a deal with the Legislature to narrow it. Her approval memo names two clarifications she wants: that employers aren’t required to create files or produce new documents beyond what they already keep, and that the definition covers only records used to decide hiring, retention, promotion, transfer, compensation, or discipline. The amendment hasn’t been drafted or passed, so nobody has seen the actual language yet.
The Legislature returns in January 2027. The law takes effect November 8, before any of that exists. So the statute described here is the one that governs for now, and the version that settles in may be somewhat narrower. Check before you rely on it.
The Bottom Line
For decades the file was the company’s story about you, written without you, and shown to you only when it was too late to answer. On November 8, that ends. You can ask for it. They have to hand it over. They have to tell you when they add something damaging. And your side goes in the record too.
If something at work starts to feel off, the file usually has the answer. Ask early, read it carefully, and answer it in writing.
If you have questions about what’s in your personnel record, or about what happened after you asked for it, Risman & Risman, P.C. represents employees throughout New York and New Jersey. Call 212-233-6400 or contact us online.