As an employer, am I obligated to provide copies of timecards upon request of an employee?
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As an employer, am I obligated to provide copies of timecards upon request of an employee?
We have someone asking for almost 3 years worth of pay vouchers and pay stubs.
Asked on December 23, 2015 under Employment Labor Law, Massachusetts
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
As a general rule, an employer is not required to provide copies of its personnel files, including time cards, schedules, etc., to an employee simply upon request. To get access to this material, the employee will need to invoke the legal process. To do this, they must either sue the company (e.g. for a claim regarding wage and hour law violations), at which point they can use the tools of discovery (subpoenas, etc.) to get the information; or they can contact the federal or state department of labor and see if it will take up their case and use its powers to get this material as part of an investigation. Once an employee successfully invokes the legal process, the employer will have to comply.
That having been said, the law on this varies from state-to-state so you can confirm the above with an employment law attorney in your area or your state's department of labor. Additionally, you must comply immediately with such a request if company policy provides that timecards be so provided to an employee or the terms of union agreement or employment contract do.
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