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Re: Old Personnel files and Applications



Usually job applications for people who are not hired have a very short retention (say two years).  Applications for people who are hired should become part of their personnel file which would usually have a very long term retention (anywhere from 70 years to permanent).  Of course, nobody other than company staff with a work related reason, the individual concerned, or that individual's designated representative should have access to the file (bar a subpoena) while it is in company custody.  

However, in the US at least, privacy ends with death and a repository which had accessioned such materials could make them available on individuals who were deceased.  

As these applications and files go back so far, and it is a local company, they _may_ (this is an appraisal decision) constitute a valuable data set on local residents.  Access to particular individual's files should be controlled by them while they live.  Access to files on deceased individuals can be handled by requiring proof of death and/or setting a closure period sufficiently long to warrant an assumption of death.  

One could also have a policy that would allow access for aggregated data research that doesn't identify individuals.  These kinds of research agreements are quite common.

Obviously, any decision on maintaining these materials should be made in the usual context of considering the quantity, cost of maintaining, and fit with the collection policy of the institution.  But it does sound like they may be worth keeping.  Indeed, the more recent ones (coming into the 70s) may actually be needed by individuals  when they come to the point of wanting to collect Social Security and may need to prove employment dates.  The local goodwill of maintaining records that could involve such rights may also be a consideration.


  

R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, C.A. 
Archives and Records Administrator
City Archives and Records Division 
City Clerk, 240 Water St
Henderson, NV 89015 

702-568-8334

jai@gty.ci.henderson.nv.us

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