I am currently appealing my termination from work. I live in Maryland, and am wondering how I would go about obtaining access to my personnel file (via subpoena, freedom of information, etc). My employer, a hospital, claims that the personnel file is their property and therefor has the right do withold information or limit access to information contained in the file except for application, reviews, job offer letter, etc.

I was terminated for 'destruction of property'. Basically, I broke a touch screen monitor while trying to access medication for a patient that was in a critical condition. I reported the incident immediately to my supervisor once the patient was stabilized. He insured me while leaving the shift that he notified the applicable department and that the situation was taken care of. Two days later, I am in the human resources department being told that they investigated the matter and they were informed that I was a violent character, that people were afraid to speak to me - being such, it was implied that breaking this screen was a malicious and violent act. I was told that I was suspended for my next scheduled day and that I would be contacted about whether to report to work after that day. I was not contacted, but I contacted the supervisor to inquire whether I was to report to work for the next shift. I was informed that I had been removed from the schedule by the supervisor - afterwhich, I recieved a letter the following days informing me of my termination.

I am in my last steps, meeting with the CEO, after reviews by the employee relations, director of HR, and president of HR. I never denied that I broke the machine, but their reasoning stems from impressions that are false. The act was never malicious or deliberate. Other equipment throughout the organization is broken for reasons less substantial that incurr a greater cost (ex. transportation monitor - $25k). The orgainization offered to allow me to resign for purposes of my employment record, and would require at least two positive references after one year of employment elsewhere before changing my status to eligible for re-hire. Has the organization set a prescident by not terminating employees for breaking equipment previously? Are they applying the policies in a consistant manner? Could this be discriminatory?

Unfortunately, Maryland is an at-will state and the orgainization is not union.

[Bricks41]

In brief, if they haven't acted in a consistent manner in regards to termination soley because of damaged property, there is a certain amount of exposure the company is accepting by doing so.

Typically companies do withhold the employee records. An employee does have a right to receive their termination notice, but not necessarily the rest of the file.

If you applied for unemployment, the company would have to defend their position relating to unemployment compensation. If it were to go to hearing, you have a right to the information used in their defense.