Harding v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Summary

The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that an employer's internal investigative records concerning alleged employee misconduct constituted part of the employee's personnel file under 26 M.R.S.A. § 631. The court relied on the statute's broad language covering records relating to an employee's character or work habits, regardless of how the records were labeled or where they were stored. The court affirmed the judgment requiring Wal-Mart to disclose the records and imposing a civil forfeiture and attorney fees.

Holdings

1. Records relating to an employee's character or work habits, including records concerning an alleged theft by the employee, are part of the employee's personnel file when they are in the employer's possession, regardless of where the employer stores them or what label it gives them.
2. The court could not judicially create an exemption for investigative records based on confidentiality, law-enforcement, employee-protection, or defamation concerns because the Legislature had not included such an exemption in section 631.

Questions Presented

1. Whether employer records relating to an investigation of alleged employee wrongdoing are included within the statutory definition of an employee's personnel file under 26 M.R.S.A. § 631.
2. Whether investigative records are excluded from the statutory definition of personnel file because they are not specifically named in the statute or because public-policy concerns favor confidentiality.

Disposition

affirmed