The Massachusetts Personnel Records Law: Section 52C Review, Notice and Rebuttal Rights

What G.L. c. 149, s. 52C Defines as a Personnel Record

Section 52C of chapter 149 opens with three definitions that set its reach. An employee is "a person currently employed or formerly employed by an employer," so the rights in the section continue after separation. One group is carved out: people employed by a private institution of higher education in tenured or tenure-track positions, or positions with similar responsibilities, are not employees for purposes of the section. An employer is defined broadly as "an individual, corporation, partnership, labor organization, unincorporated association or any other legal business, public or private, or commercial entity including agents of the employer."

The central definition turns on use rather than on where a document is filed. A personnel record is "a record kept by an employer that identifies an employee, to the extent that the record is used or has been used, or may affect or be used relative to that employee's qualifications for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation or disciplinary action." Records held by a person or company under contract to keep or supply personnel records for the employer are included. Information of a personal nature about someone other than the employee is excluded where disclosing it "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of such other person's privacy."

For employers of twenty or more employees, the statute then lists written information and documents that "shall be included" in the record to the extent the employer prepared them:

• Name, address, date of birth, job title and description
• Rate of pay and any other compensation paid
• Starting date of employment
• The job application, and resumes or other employment inquiries submitted in response to the employer's advertisement
• All performance evaluations, written warnings of substandard performance and lists of probationary periods
• Waivers signed by the employee and copies of dated termination notices
• Any other documents relating to disciplinary action regarding the employee

The record must be kept in typewritten or printed form, or handwritten in indelible ink. The same employers must retain the complete record, without deletions, from the start of employment until three years after it ends, and longer where an employee has brought an administrative or judicial proceeding against them and the record is relevant. An employer of twenty or more that chooses to have a written personnel policy must keep it continuously at the office where personnel matters are administered.

Employee Review Within Five Business Days

The access right is triggered by a written request. Within five business days of receiving one, the employer "shall provide the employee with an opportunity to review" the record. The review takes place at the place of employment during normal business hours. Separately, an employee "shall be given a copy" of the record within five business days of submitting a written request for a copy.

The statute caps reviews at two separate occasions in a calendar year, with one exception described below. Nothing in the text limits the right to employees who are still on the payroll; the definition of employee covers former employees in the same terms.

How the definition of personnel record interacts with a request was the issue in Kessler v. Cambridge Health Alliance, 62 Mass. App. Ct. 589 (2004). A physician fired after an unsatisfactory criminal record check requested his file three times and received a copy that, he alleged, omitted his termination letter and correspondence about him from hospital officials. The Appeals Court held that he could seek a judicial determination of whether those documents were "documents relating to disciplinary action" that must be physically included in his file, and that if they were, they became subject to his review, correction and comment.

Notice of Negative Information Within Ten Days

The section imposes a notice duty that does not wait for a request: "An employer shall notify an employee within 10 days of the employer placing in the employee's personnel record any information to the extent that the information is, has been used or may be used, to negatively affect the employee's qualification for employment, promotion, transfer, additional compensation or the possibility that the employee will be subject to disciplinary action."

The trigger tracks the definition of personnel record. It is not limited to formal discipline; it reaches any information that has been or may be used to affect the listed decisions negatively. The statute does not prescribe the form of the notice.

The notice provision is tied back to the access right. A review that results from the placement of negative information "shall not be deemed to be 1 of the 2 annually permitted reviews," so an employee who is notified can review the file without using up one of the two annual opportunities.

Rebuttal Statements

The third paragraph of the section sets out what happens when an employee disagrees with something in the record. The employer and employee may agree to remove or correct it. If they do not agree, "the employee may submit a written statement explaining the employee's position which shall thereupon be contained therein and shall become a part of such employee's personnel record." The statement must be included whenever the disputed information is transmitted to a third party, as long as the original information stays in the file.

For information that is false, the statute goes further: if an employer places in the record "any information which such employer knew or should have known to be false," the employee "shall have remedy through the collective bargaining agreement, other personnel procedures or judicial process to have such information expunged." The section also states that it does not prohibit removing information by mutual agreement for any reason.

The rebuttal right has been treated as protected by the courts. In Holick v. Boston Medical Center, decided September 11, 2026, the Appeals Court described the Supreme Judicial Court's 2021 decision in Meehan v. Medical Information Technology, Inc., 488 Mass. 730, as holding that an employee's statutory right to submit a rebuttal statement for inclusion in the personnel file is "a legally guaranteed right of employment, and therefore, termination from employment for the exercise of this legally guaranteed right fits within the first public policy exception to employment at will." That is a common-law wrongful discharge claim, not a remedy written into section 52C. The Meehan opinion itself could not be retrieved for this post, so its reasoning is reported only as the Appeals Court quoted it.

Enforcement by the Attorney General

The last paragraph of the section is two sentences: "Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than twenty-five hundred dollars. This section shall be enforced by the attorney general." According to the Kessler opinion, enforcement was moved to the Attorney General from the Department of Labor and Industries by St. 1996, c. 151, s. 389, and the section was first inserted by St. 1986, c. 509.

Kessler is the decision that marks out what an employee can do alone. The Superior Court had dismissed the statutory count on the ground that only the Attorney General has standing to enforce section 52C. The Appeals Court reversed in part. Reading chapter 149 as a whole, it concluded that the Attorney General's enforcement role concerns the obligations to maintain personnel records, "whereas an employee retains a personal remedy related to the correction of information in his file and expungement of documents in his file containing false material." Implicit in that personal right, the court held, is the right to a judicial determination of whether a document is a personnel record.

The court set limits in the same opinion. It rejected Kessler's claim to damages and his request for an order directing the Attorney General to impose a fine: "His remedy is defined by the statute, which provides employees with the opportunity to comment on, correct, or expunge incorrect or false information contained in personnel files that pertain to them." It also held that this personal right, like the right to prompt payment of wages, does not require an employee covered by a collective bargaining agreement to exhaust the grievance process first.

The Attorney General's own guidance materials on personnel records were sought for this post but not located on an official page that could be retrieved, so nothing here is attributed to that office beyond the statute.

Bills That Would Add a Private Right of Action

Two identical bills in the 194th General Court, H.2112 and S.1301, titled "An Act protecting an employee's right to rebuttal of personnel records," would change the enforcement picture by amending two other sections of chapter 149:

• Section 148A, which now bars penalizing an employee for seeking rights "under the wages and hours provisions of this chapter," would add "or under the personnel records provisions in Section 52C of this chapter."
• Section 150, which lets an employee aggrieved by violations of listed sections sue 90 days after filing a complaint with the Attorney General and recover treble damages for lost wages and benefits plus costs and fees, would add 52C to that list.

As of the bill history pages retrieved on October 12, 2026, H.2112 was reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on December 22, 2025, and on January 5, 2026 was read a second time and ordered to a third reading in the House. S.1301 was reported favorably on October 2, 2025 and referred to Senate Ways and Means. Neither has been enacted, so section 52C's enforcement provision remains the Attorney General and the fine.

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