Nearly 75% of all litigation filed against businesses involves employment disputes. Every year, between 77,000 and 81,000 charges are filed against employers under statutes enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Between 1997 and 2009, charges of Retaliation made to the have increased 59% and are now just as common as charges based on Race (see chart). The average cost to settle claims made against smaller companies is around $50,000 (CNA) . The cost of cases that go to trial can easily exceed $100,000.
Business owners and managers typically believe information from their own records can be used successfully to defend their companies from charges of employment bias. The reality is that plaintiff’s counsel use the employer’s own records as evidence to support their charges of bias.
BIS recommends that businesses should make it a priority to understand the applicable business records retention schedule regulations governing all their records, but personnel files and other HR records in particular. With such information in hand, policies and procedures can be formulated to be sure records are purged as soon as the applicable disposal period has been satisfied. Timely records purges not only reduce the cost of maintaining inactive files, they also keep possibly damaging records from being by plaintiff’s attorneys.
