SB 513 Personnel and Training Records: New Retention Rules Employers Miss
General Defense Resources
Here's the detail most SB 513 coverage might skip: the law doesn't actually create a new retention period. California's three-year personnel record retention rule already existed under Labor Code §1198.5. SB 513, signed October 11, 2025, pulls education and training records into that same rule for the first time.
This means a category of documents most employers have never treated as "personnel records" now must be retained, organized, and produced like performance reviews and disciplinary notes. If training records live in an LMS, department folder, or third-party platform, the issue isn't necessarily where they are stored. The issue is whether your organization can identify, preserve, and produce those records as part of a §1198.5 personnel-record request.
Key Takeaways
SB 513 (signed October 11, 2025) amends Labor Code §1198.5 to include education and training records within the definition of "personnel records."
The law doesn't require employers to create training documentation. It applies only to employers who already maintain such records.
Required fields for any training record: employee name, provider name, duration and date, core competencies, and any resulting certification.
The three-year retention period isn't new. It's the existing personnel record rule, now extended to a category of documents many employers never formally retained.
Former employees are limited to one personnel file request per year; employers have 30 days to respond (35 with mutual written agreement).
The statute doesn't carve out an exception for training completed before the effective date, so employers should review existing training records now, not just future ones.
What Does SB 513 Require California Employers to Do?
SB 513, effective January 1, 2026, expanded California Labor Code §1198.5 to expressly include education and training records within personnel records relating to employee performance. Employers that maintain education or training records must ensure those records identify the employee, training provider, date and duration, core competencies, and resulting certification or qualification.
The law does not require employers to create training records that did not previously exist. Employers must generally maintain covered personnel records for at least three years after termination and produce them within 30 calendar days of a written request, subject to a written extension of up to 35 days.
What Has to Be in a Training Record Now?
Effective January 1, 2026, any education or training record you maintain must include five specific elements:
The employee's name
The training provider's name
The duration and date of the training
The core competencies covered, including any equipment or software addressed
Any resulting certification or qualification
A record missing even one of these fields doesn't satisfy the statute. A training log that just says "completed forklift safety, 3/12" without the provider name or specific competencies covered is now technically incomplete.
How Long Do You Have to Keep These Records?
Three years after the employee's termination. This's the same retention period that generally applies to personnel records under existing California law. SB 513 didn't change this number. What it changed is what counts as a personnel record in the first place.
Training documentation that many employers previously treated as a training-department artifact, with its own informal (or nonexistent) retention practice, now falls under the same three-year clock as performance reviews and disciplinary records.
This is the retention gap worth catching now. If your safety training records live in a separate LMS with a different retention schedule or no schedule at all, that system needs to align with the three-year personnel record rule rather than whatever cadence your training platform defaults to.
Does The Rule Apply to Training That Already Happened?
SB 513 does not expressly grandfather training records created before January 1, 2026. It also does not require employers to recreate training records that never existed. If an employer already maintains historical education or training records, however, it should review those records now to determine whether they contain the information required by §1198.5 and can be produced in response to a personnel-record request.
What Happens When a Former Employee Requests Their File?
The existing Labor Code §1198.5 request process still governs, with a few specific rules worth confirming your process actually follows:
You have 30 calendar days to respond to a written request for inspection or copies, extendable to 35 days only by mutual written agreement.
Former employees are limited to one request per year.
You may be required to use an employer-provided request form, but that form must be made available immediately upon a verbal request.
You can verify the requester's identity before producing records.
Certain records remain excluded from disclosure, such as investigation files, letters of reference, and records concerning other employees or third parties.
Watch: Employee Requested Their Personnel File - Here's What California Employers Must Do - a direct walkthrough of the §1198.5 request process. This law now applies to training records, too.
What Happens If You Miss the 30-Day Deadline?
The deadline isn't merely administrative. Labor Code §1198.5 allows a current or former employee, or the Labor Commissioner, to recover a $750 penalty when an employer fails to permit inspection or copying within the statutory deadline or any agreed extension. An employee may also seek injunctive relief and recover costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
That makes request tracking a legal-control issue, not just an HR administrative task.
Where Employers Actually Get This Wrong
The recurring failure point isn't bad faith. It's fragmentation. Training records scattered across HR, individual department managers, and third-party training vendors rarely live in a single accessible place. That fragmentation becomes your legal exposure the moment a complete file request arrives.
Records missing required fields.
A vendor's completion certificate rarely includes all five elements SB 513 requires. You may need to supplement it internally.
Records stored entirely outside the personnel file.
If training lives only in an LMS with no connection to the employee's actual personnel file, you can't produce it on the same timeline as the rest of the file.
No consistent retention alignment.
A training platform's default data retention setting may not align with the three-year personnel record rule.
No documented request-response process.
Without someone specifically responsible for logging requests and tracking the 30-day window, a request can sit unanswered past the deadline without anyone noticing.
If a records dispute escalates into a broader claim, the documentation standard here connects directly to what actually protects you in that later dispute.
Our guide on supervisor training to reduce FEHA lawsuits covers the training program aspect. SB 513 is the recordkeeping side of the same underlying practice. Documented, complete training records support both compliance and your defense if the underlying training itself is ever challenged.
Building a Compliant Process Before a Request Arrives
Map every place training records currently live, like HR systems, department folders, third-party vendor portals, and confirm none of them sit outside your personnel file process.
Audit existing records against the five required fields, correcting or supplementing anything incomplete before a request forces the question.
Align your retention schedule so training records follow the same three-year rule as the rest of the personnel file, regardless of what a training vendor's platform defaults to.
Designate one person to log and track every request, with the 30-day window calendared from the date of receipt.
Confirm that your request form is available on request and that your identity verification process doesn't create its own delay.
If your recordkeeping hasn't been reviewed against these five requirements, close that gap now. Our General Defense Resources collection covers this kind of foundational compliance work: the recordkeeping, notice, and documentation obligations that don't fall under a single claim type but shape your exposure across every one.
Conclusion
SB 513 did not create a new three-year retention period. It expanded California Labor Code §1198.5 so that education and training records maintained by an employer now fall within the statute's personnel-record access requirements. Those records must contain five specified categories of information, and covered personnel records must generally be maintained for at least three years after termination.
The practical risk isn't simply whether your company has a training-retention policy. It's whether HR can identify, preserve, and produce training records scattered across an LMS, department folders, vendor platforms, and the personnel system when a §1198.5 request arrives.
Audit those systems now, assign record ownership, and make sure your request-response process can produce a complete file within 30 days. If you haven't reviewed your training records against SB 513, DefendMyBiz offers a paid 1-hour consultation. Book a call with our employer defense team today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SB 513 require California employers to create training records?
How long must training records be retained under SB 513?
What must a training record include under SB 513?
Do these requirements apply to training completed before January 1, 2026?
How quickly must an employer respond to a personnel record request?
Disclaimer: The above content is for informational purposes only. This is not legal or tax advice. Laws, IRS guidance, and withholding requirements can change, and outcomes depend on specific facts. You are advised to contact a qualified attorney for any legal advice.
