Personnel file and prospective employers
 

What are the legal disclosure limits concerning personnel records? Ie.) prior pilot at Eagle now wanting to go to PSA.
Accidents and incidents. LOi’s.
What about absenteeism?

Your work history follows you. Basic principle of life.

Are you asking what your former employer is legally required to pass along, or what you can get away with?

State law governs *limits* on disclosure.

Typically there are not many legal limits on disclosure.

Many states have limits on what a prospective employer can consider, typically criminal history, credit score, etc. But rarely do they prevent one company from talking to another.

The practical limits come from liability. Mid+ size companies with professional HR and legal teams will have policies to prevent sharing of almost all employee info. There's no upside to doing that, and only downside.

An angry manager can turn a molehill into a mountain, and cost the company big bucks. Even if the company discloses purely factual info, if they get sued they will then have to PROVE their info was factual and that would be very hard to do with employee matters, where there is almost always some he said/she said going on.

Obvious exception for legally mandated sharing such as PRIA (which comes with strict limitations on most "HR type" employee info).

Thanks for the info. Not hiding anything just curious as I’m new to HR.

You need to disclose your Eagle employee ID# and they will see everything as a WO.

Keep in mind this is a relatively small industry despite a couple hundred thousand pilots.
At my present company I’ve already flown with 3 Captains that knew Captain A-hole LCA from my previous company.
Do not bet your job on it that HR is any different.
These folks are connected just like we are.
You will never find out what information was disclosed.
You just won’t get a interview and if you did you won’t get a class date and you’ll swim in the pool for ever.

Back in the day when I did the hiring and the firing at a mid size flight school I’d usually call the previous employer listed and sometimes the one prior to that.
Just a hey, hello my name is and I’m calling for an employment verification for CFI Abby Aileron.
Even silence would tell you a lot.
Well.......yes.....(awkward silence) Abby used to work here....
Two out of three would divulge more information then just employment dates.
I’d usually ask if they were eligible for rehire.
I’ve had every answer between Hell No and that was my best CFI.
Point being dont be Capt A-hole.
It will follow you around.

This is a good point, but it's not like the old days. Liability risk still ties their hands (they don't want to go on any kind of record violating corporate policy or saying something that could fuel a lawsuit) but things might be shared over beer.

The good news is the HR pros typically don't have a real vested interest in the career outcome of any employee. Unlike an operational manager they probably are not emotionally engaged in the situation. Today HR is less likely to violate policy and risk liability over something that's just business to them. If they do, they might be deposed, and have to chose between their job or perjury. Most just don't care enough about pilots one way or the other to put their own butts on the line.

This is why they have HR pros and not line managers deal with this stuff.