New York State has enacted a landmark law giving employees the right to inspect their personnel records, effective November 8, 2026.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S3460 on September 9, 2026, adding new Section 210-b to the New York Labor Law, with the legislation taking effect sixty days after signing.
The law applies to both private- and public-sector employers across the state, extending access rights to current and former employees alike.
According to the governor’s office, New York now joins at least seventeen other states with a personnel-file access requirement, a significant milestone for worker protections in the state.
The new law expressly models itself on Massachusetts’s Personnel Record Law, one of the most established employee records statutes in the country.
Current and former employees are entitled to review their personnel records up to two times per calendar year, with employers required to provide requested records within five business days.
Employers must furnish a copy of an employee’s personnel record at no cost and must notify employees within ten days of placing negative information in their file.
Employees are also granted the right to submit written rebuttals when negative information is added to their records, giving workers a formal avenue to challenge potentially damaging material.
Employers are additionally required to maintain a complete, unaltered copy of each personnel record from the employee’s date of hire through three years after their termination.
The bill includes mechanisms for seeking expungement of information the employer knew or should have known was false, strengthening protections beyond simple access rights.
An express anti-retaliation provision protects workers who exercise their rights under the law, and violations carry fines ranging from $500 to $2,500, enforced by New York’s attorney general.
The law does not supersede collective bargaining agreements, provided such agreements grant employees at least substantially similar access to their personnel records as required under the statute.
Governor Hochul signed S3460 at the state’s annual Labor Appreciation Reception at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies, signalling a strongly pro-labour direction in Albany ahead of the upcoming gubernatorial election.