Employee Personnel File Access Requirements in Maine

At a glance

Written request, timing, and place

The employee or former employee must make a written request. A duly authorized representative may conduct the review and copying. The employer must provide the opportunity within 10 days after receiving the request unless good cause excuses the failure.

Ordinarily, review and copying occur where the personnel files are maintained and during normal office hours. The employer may instead arrange a more convenient time and location. If the records are electronic, on microfiche, or otherwise maintained in a nonpaper form, the employer must make the equipment needed to review and copy them available.

Records and annual copies

Section 631 uses a nonexclusive definition. It includes formal and informal evaluations, reports about character, credit, work habits, compensation and benefits, and nonprivileged medical records or nurses' station notes in the employer's possession. For the medical category, the section defines "nonprivileged" by reference to material not protected from discovery or disclosure under the listed court, evidence, workers' compensation, or similar administrative rules.

In each calendar year, the employee or former employee may obtain one free copy of the entire file. After that full copy, the requester may also obtain one free copy of all material later added to the file. The person requesting any other copies during that calendar year pays the copying cost.

Enforcement and the missing rebuttal procedure

An employer that lacks good cause and fails to provide the review-and-copy opportunity within 10 days is subject to a $25 civil forfeiture for each day the failure continues, capped at $500. The employee, former employee, or Department of Labor may sue in District Court or Superior Court for equitable relief, including an injunction. A favorable judgment may also support an award of suit costs and a reasonable attorney's fee.

Section 631 does not provide a procedure to demand correction or removal of disputed information or to place an employee rebuttal in the file. It also does not set a post-termination cutoff for a former employee's express access right.

What trips people up

The 10-day rule governs the opportunity for review and copying. Good cause can excuse a failure to meet that period, but the statute does not define good cause or create an automatic extension of a stated length.

The free-copy allowance has two parts within a calendar year: one entire-file copy and, after that copy, one copy of everything later added. Additional copies are paid by the requester.

The statute covers a personnel file only if the employer has one for that employee. It does not require an employer to create a file merely because an employee asks for access.

Common questions

Can a former employee request the file?

Yes. Former employees are expressly included, and § 631 states no post-termination request deadline.

May a representative review the file?

Yes. A duly authorized representative may review and copy it. The statute does not prescribe a particular authorization form.

Must the employer mail the copies?

Section 631 requires an opportunity to review and copy at the file-maintenance location during normal office hours, subject to a more convenient arrangement made at the employer's discretion. It does not separately require mailing.

Can inaccurate material be corrected under this section?

Section 631 states no correction, removal, or written-rebuttal procedure.

Statutes and sources

• 26 M.R.S. § 631: written requests, eligible requesters, covered records, location and timing, annual free copies, nonpaper-record equipment, and enforcement — official text (accessed July 12, 2026).