Ideally everything. Employment agreements, new hire paperwork, benefit plan descriptions, paystubs, corrective action notices, company newsletters, HR manuals, department manuals, emails relating to any of the above documents and anything else you might receive. Although a lot of these documents can be uncovered during litigation from your employer, it can be extremely important to have those documents up front. Sometimes employers do not have to keep certain documents beyond a given time period. In those cases the only “official” records will be the ones you keep. It helps to also keep personal notes of any interactions or anything you witness. These could be evidence of harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination of your employment, or instruction by management to do something inconsistent with company policies or could be illegal.
Fort Worth and Dallas employment records
After years of employment in Fort Worth or Dallas your records can be an expansive mess of paper. Converting documents to electronic format can avoid the physical space. Many employers now make HR documentation and paystubs available in electronic formats which can make keeping electronic records even easier. With the minimal cost of electronic storage devices, such as external hard drives, and online storage, cloud drives, the burden of keeping those records is minimized further.
At a minimum, employees should keep copies of all paycheck stubs, benefit plan descriptions, any corrective action documents, any emails or letters related to corrective action and any emails or letters related to any benefits or wages. You should also keep any emails or documents relating to any suspected discrimination or harassment in the workplace. These documents often form the basis for claims against the employer. They include those records most likely disputed. Paycheck stubs are particularly important because they reflect a wealth of information and chronology of your employment. They reflect wage rates, hours, overtime, benefit deductions and deferrals, bonus paid, etc. Finding that information, especially broken down by pay cycle can sometimes be difficult to obtain from the employer.
It is also important for you to review these records and dispute anything that is incorrect immediately. Many employment disputes have a short statute of limitations that requires a filing a claim within months . It is also easier to convince your employer to correct a problem right away.
Dallas and Fort Worth employment attorneys for wrongful termination
Although litigation typically requires parties to disclose relevant records to the other side, having as much information as possible available for your attorney at the beginning will give you and your employment attorney considerable advantage. For more information from Texas wrongful termination lawyers about proactive steps to protect your employment rights check out this video: