It is our policy to retain employee records for a period of six years after termination of employment so as to cover for the statute of limitations. My question is what, if any are the limitations on the retention of specific items which can be held on staff records e.g. accident information, training data, absence data etc?

Certain statutes have specific requirements regarding the retention of employee records. For example under the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 an employer is obliged to maintain records for a period of 3 years from the date of their making.

With regard to maintaining records for 6 years post termination of employment, this is sufficient to comply with the provisions of most Irish statutes and for personal injuries and other common law claims. However, the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 require that personal data and sensitive personal data should only be retained for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was gathered in the first instance, which may be less than 6