The company that operates the Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken restaurant chain has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a class action brought by workers who claimed the restaurant owners broke an Illinois biometrics privacy law in the way it required workers to scan fingerprints when punching the clock at work.
Under the settlement, a group of more than 1,400 current and former Nando's restaurant employees will each get $643. Their three attorneys will pick up $470,000, according to terms filed in Chicago federal court suit.
Judge Sara Ellis, of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, recently gave preliminary approval to the $1.4 million deal that would put to sleep a putative class action against Nando's, which is headquartered in South Africa. As of 2019, the chain had 1,000 restaurants around the globe, including eight in Chicago and four more in the suburbs. Nando's specializes in Portuguese-style food, and particularly, the dish known as Peri-Peri chicken.
The Fish Law Firm, of Naperville, filed a putative class action in September 2019 on behalf of named plaintiff Katherine Martinez. The lawsuit alleged Nando's violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by making employees, such as herself, use a fingertip scanning device at Nando's restaurants in Illinois, allegedly without following the BIPA law's notice and consent requirements. Martinez and Nando's started settlement negotiations in November, with a preliminary agreement reached in March.
The proposed settlement would cover 1,427 people who worked at Nando's in Illinois between May 20, 2015 and Oct. 1, 2019. Nando's would set up a $1.4 million fund, from which each class action member would collect $642.87, with Martinez receiving an extra $7,500 for spearheading the litigation.
Martinez is represented by attorneys David Fish, John Kunze and Mara Baltabols. The lawyers are to be given $470,000, plus $1,500 for their costs incurred handling the case.
Analytics Consulting, of Eden Prairie, Minn., would administer distribution of the settlement, which includes tax reporting. Analytics can receive as much as $25,000 for its work, according to the proposed settlement.
Nando's denied wrongdoing, but said in court papers it is settling so as to avoid the "time, risk, and expense of defending protracted litigation."
Pending final approval by Ellis, notice of the settlement will be sent to class members, who can do nothing and receive a check. They also have the choice of opting out of the settlement or objecting to it.
Nando's has been defended by the Chicago and St. Louis offices of Littler Mendelson, P.C.