| The employer shall, upon written request from an employee or |
| former employee, provide the employee, former employee or duly |
| authorized representative with an opportunity to review and |
| copy the employee's personnel file if the employer has a |
| personnel file for that employee. The reviews and copying |
| must take place at the location where the personnel files are |
| maintained and during normal office hours unless, at the |
| employer's discretion, a more convenient time and location for |
the employee are arranged. The cost of copying is paid by the |
person requesting the copy. |
| of an employee's__personnel record to the employee, without |
| cost, within 5 business days of submission of a written |
| request for the copy to the employer. For the purpose of this |
| section, a personnel file includes, but is not limited to, any |
| formal or informal employee evaluations and reports relating |
| to the employee's character, credit, work habits, compensation |
| and benefits and nonprivileged medical records or nurses' |
| station notes relating to the employee that the employer has |
| in the employer's possession. Records in a personnel file may |
| be maintained in any form including paper, microfiche or |
| electronic form. The employer shall take adequate steps to |
| ensure the integrity and confidentiality of these records. An |
| employer maintaining records in a form other than paper shall |
| have available to the employee, former employee or duly |
| authorized representative the equipment necessary to review |
| and copy the personnel file. Any employer who, following a |
| request pursuant to this section, without good cause fails to |
| provide an opportunity for review and copying of a personnel |
| file, within 10 days of receipt of that request, is subject to |
| a civil forfeiture of $25 for each day that a failure |
| continues. The total forfeiture may not exceed $500. An |
| employee, former employee or the Department of Labor may bring |
| an action in the District Court or the Superior Court for such |
| equitable relief, including an injunction, as the court may |
| consider to be necessary and proper. The employer may also be |
| required to reimburse the employee, former employee or the |
| Department of Labor for costs of suit including a reasonable |
| attorney's fee if the employee or the department receives a |
| judgment in the employee's or department's favor, |
| respectively. For the purposes of this section, the term |
| "nonprivileged medical records or nurses' station notes" means |
| all those materials that have not been found to be protected |
| from discovery or disclosure in the course of civil litigation |
| under the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 26, the Maine |
| Rules of Evidence, Article V or |
