I have worked at my company (hospital) for 7 years. I left for 9 months then came back and when I came back to work the HR department had to decide how much to pay me based off my years of experience as a nurse. When it came time to give me my salary they said they have no record of me ever working for them and they would have to give me base pay. They also said they lost all my work files with all my documents i.e.. License,certifications, etc. Is this a violation of my privacy having lost all my personal documents? And more importantly the fact that records of an employee of 7 years can just be lost and have no trace of them?

No violaton what so ever, unless you can show and prove that they gave the files to someone, that they left them laying where others could read them. ** and this would be just your medical records,

Your work records, and copies of licenses are not covered under hipaa.

They may have burnt it or shreded it and no one else say them.

Or it may be well that they are just lying to you to pay you a lot less. HR would would still have you in the payroll system in 9 months. You are responsible to provide them copies of your liceneses

You could also produce your pay stubs to them. Hopefully you haven't thrown them out either.

At the facility I work, you are only give 6 months to return to retain your status. After 6 months, your records are removed to storage and you begin working at minimum pay with minimum benefits.