Disciplinary Letters

In the unionized workplace the inclusion of disciplinary letters on the employee’s personnel file may be addressed in the collective agreement. Generally, if the discipline itself was appropriate, then it is appropriate to keep the letter on the file.

Board of education policy or the collective agreement might provide that such letters are removed from the file after a period of time if no further incidents take place.

If the matter is not addressed in the collective agreement or in the non-union workplace, a general rule of thumb is that disciplinary letters are of little evidentiary value after two to three years if no further incidents have taken place. Thus, it would be appropriate to remove them after expiration of this period. However, if there is further discipline or if there is a pattern of behaviour that develops over time then the information should be retained for a longer period.