Is a company able to prohibit an employee from viewing his own personnel folder?

This is not ment as a sarcastic remark so please don't take this the wrong way but, what would be in the their personel file that an employee shouldn't see?

I never let an employee have the file alone, but they were always free to see what was there. Sure takes the wind out of a lot of gossip and management mistrust.

Can you prohibit an employee from seeig it? I suppose you can its company property. If there is a specific legal restriction I don't know of any that would.

I agree with Don. There are no legal restrictions on an employee viewing their own information. If you have a policy that says they can't you will not have many trusting employees left. Let them look at it in the presence of the management person who controls the files. You will also get asked the question "Can I make a copy of everything in my file?" Generally no, especially if it's crammed full of pages. Usually they just want to be reassured that nothing is in there they don't know about. And generally they would only want a copy of several pages. You have the right to ask why they want them as well.

Thanks for responding. Your comments are not taken personally. I posed the question because one of our employees was told by HR that they could not SEE their folder because it was bank property. Not being in HR myself, I thought that perhaps there was some kind of law.

Thanks again....

I know in CA there are specific guidelines reguarding the viewing your file. It must be made available within a certain timeframe after it is requested, etc.
You might want to take a look at your state laws.

This issue is way more serious than the responses imply.

I know for a fact that you must allow employees to view and copy contents of their personnel file and there are state laws outlining this right - for example - Here's the law covering Maine, but each state more than likely has this law on the books - please note that there are fines if you do not comply.

Ditto -- I know there is a law in my state too.