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North Carolina Confidential Files

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I’ve heard that there is a law that confidential employee files be kept under a “two-lock system” in North Carolina.  Does that mean that they need to be kept in a locked file cabinet, in a locked office or storage room?

In North Carolina, there is no state or federal law that addresses the lock system that should be used to store any confidential files.

Employers have to do “whatever it takes” in order to ensure that medical information does not get released to persons who have no legal right to view it.  Sometimes one lock is sufficient to do the job, while in other situations, four or five locks may be required.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the federal law that applies to these situations.  The ADA applies to those businesses having 15 or more employees.  There are some states that have their own versions of this act.

There are numerous federal laws, as well as court decisions, that require certain types of information be kept in confidential files.  These include data on any employee’s disability status, medical condition, credit, background, religion, and age.  Such files should be maintained under lock and key.  The public should never have access to these files at any time.  Supervisors and managers should only have access to the files on a “need to know” basis.

What the term “two-lock system” means is that medical data, as well as other confidential information, needs to be protected from any unauthorized persons within and outside of the company.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a worker’s disability status is not to be a factor in regards to any personnel decisions.  HIPAA requires employers to keep all medical information about employees in strict secrecy.

These types of files should be viewed as little as possible, by as few people as possible, in order to maintain the privacy of all employees.  Since the layout of all buildings is different, it would be impossible to provide specific guidelines for maintaining the confidentiality of personnel files.  There are, however, some general guidelines that can be followed.

The most common arrangement is to place confidential files in a locked file cabinet in a locked office.  JH