(A) The village maintains an official personnel file for each employee and each applicant for employment. A change of personal status may have an important effect upon employee benefits. Therefore, an employee should notify the administrative staff of any changes in the following:
(1) Legal name;
(2) Home address or telephone number;
(3) Marital status: name of spouse, date of birth (date of marriage/divorce if after date of hire);
(4) Number, names, and date(s) of birth of dependents, only if the employee is seeking health insurance coverage for named dependents;
(5) Name, address, and telephone number of the person to be notified in case of emergency;
(6) Change of beneficiary;
(7) Military or draft status; and
(8) Exemptions of the W-4 tax form.
(B) An employee may inspect his or her own personnel file twice a year. An employee wishing to inspect his or her personnel file should take the following steps:
(1) Make a dated written request to the administrative staff for review and approval by the President;
(2) Inspection will be allowed during normal working hours, unless other arrangements are approved by the President; and
(3) The file must be reviewed under the supervision of the President or her or his designee. No employee may remove her or his personnel file from the office or personally make copies. Copies of personnel records may be made for the employee by a request to the President or her or his designee. However, a reasonable charge for copying may be required.
(4) Copies of personnel records may be made for the employee by a request to the President or her or his designee. However, a reasonable charge for copying may be required.
(C) The right of an employee (or the employee’s designated representative) to inspect her or his personnel records does not apply to:
(1) Letters of reference for that employee;
(2) Any portion of a test document, except that the employee may see a cumulative total test score for an entire test document;
(3) Information of a personal nature about a person other than the employee if disclosure of the information would constitute an unwarranted invasion of the other person’s privacy;
(4) Records relevant to any pending claim between the village and employee which may be discovered in a judicial proceeding; and
(5) Investigatory or security records maintained by the village to investigate criminal conduct by an employee or other activity by the employee which could reasonably be expect to harm the village’s property, operations, or business or could, by the employee’s activity, cause the village financial liability, unless and until the village takes adverse personnel action based on information in such records.
(D) If an employee disagrees with the information found in his or her file, removal or correction of the information may be agreed upon by his or her supervisor, the President, and the employee. If an agreement cannot be reached regarding the removal or correction of the employee’s file(s), the employee will be permitted to submit a written statement explaining his or her position. The statement will become a permanent part of the employee’s personnel file and must accompany a transmittal or disclosure from that file to anyone else who is legally allowed to inspect the file.
(E) Employee personnel files and their contents are confidential and will not be made available to anyone, other than the employee, without written approval by the President. Any request for inspection of personnel files by a designated representative must be signed by the employee.
(Ord. 17-O-06, passed 3-7-2017; Ord. 2020-O-15, passed 8-18-2020; Ord. 2021-O-5, passed 5-4-2021)