EEOC Informal Discussion Letter

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

EEOC staff members wrote the following informal discussion letter in response to an inquiry from a member of the public. The letters, which are informal discussions of the issues, do not constitute official opinions of the Commission.

Title VII/ADA/ADEA: Recordkeeping

January 19, 2006

Dear:

This letter is in response to your letter dated December 27, 2005, in which you inquired whether a "paperless" personnel record system would meet the record keeping requirements in Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

It is our sense that an electronic record keeping system could meet the requirements of the statutes. Under 29 C.F.R. § 1627.2 (ADEA record keeping), there is no requirement that records be kept in a particular form such as paper. Similarly, nothing in 29 C.F.R. § 1602.14 (Title VII and ADA record keeping) requires preservation of the records in paper, rather than electronic, form. However, please make sure that any system adopted by your clients captures and retains all information contained in documents. This would ensure that documents are properly "preserved" as required by 29 C.F.R. § 1602.14.

I hope that this information has been helpful to you. Please note that this letter is an informal discussion of the issues raised by you and is not an official opinion of the EEOC within the meaning of 29 C.F.R. § 1601.91 (stating that issuance of opinions is discretionary). In addition, our failure to address other matters that may have been presented should not be construed as agreement with statements or analysis related to those matters.

Sincerely,

Peggy R. Mastroianni
Associate Legal Counsel

This page was last modified on January 18, 2007.