I'm the IT director, currently working on a document management solution for HR.

My HR counterpart, after talking to our parent's legal counsel, says that he only wants HR employees (current, or previous) to do this. Of course the plan as initially budgeted was to hire a few temps, as our current staff is quite busy-and previous staff would likely mean one or two recent retirees, but at their hourly wage at the time of retirement, and on their schedule.

The reason given is a sensible one-this would ensure that only people who already had access to those files would see them, therefore our liability wouldn't increase.

Still, to me it seems a bit ridiculous. Also, it means that scanning will cost at least 2-3 times what it would have, and take longer as well.

For reference, the office where the scanning would take place is located in California; records would be for employees across the US.

Any guidance for this situation would be appreciated.