Employee Inspection Rights. By law employers must allow current and former employees access to personnel records that relate to the employee’s performance or any grievance concerning that employee. Labor Code §1198.5 The right to inspect does not apply to records relating to the investigation of a possible criminal offense, letters of reference, or to records that were obtained prior to the employee’s employment.

Member Inspection Rights. Members do not have the right to inspect the personnel files or records of the association's employees or vendors. Members have a limited right to inspect payroll records.

Board Inspection Rights. Whether individual directors can read an employee's personnel records has not yet been decided by the courts. However, there has been enough decisions related to privacy issues to indicate the probable outcome if the matter were litigated.