Seek confidentiality order if employee wants access to co-workers' disciplinary records.

A federal court hearing a Pennsylvania case has concluded that plaintiffs seeking to compare the discipline they received with that of other employees are entitled to the information, but must keep it confidential.

That's to protect the other employees from the embarrassment and breach of privacy that exposing their disciplinary history to the world might cause.

Recent case: Jacqueline and Christian sued their former employer, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, for alleged race and gender discrimination. They sought an internal investigative report that focused on two other employees who were not involved in the litigation. They wanted to see if they were disciplined less harshly for similar conduct.

The PHA sought to block the release, arguing that the employees weren't involved in the case and that--because they were still appealing their discipline through their union--it would be unfair to file the internal...