ADP, one of the world’s largest suppliers of human resource management technology, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a sweeping class action lawsuit, accusing it of violating Illinois’ biometrics privacy law by providing equipment and support to employers who required workers to scan their fingerprints when punching in and out of work shifts.
In November, Cook County Judge David Atkins granted preliminary approval to a settlement deal between new Jersey-based ADP and a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers, representing a class of potentially tens of thousands of Illinois workers.
Under the terms of the deal, the plaintiffs’ lawyers could get as much as $8.75 million in fees from the deal.
Ryan Stephan of Stephan Zouras LLP
| stephanzouras.com
Members of the class are expected to receive about $250 each. That amount could change, depending on how many people file a claim in the class action, according to settlement-related information posted to a website created by settlement administrators.
The settlement would end one of the largest actions litigated, to date, under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA.)
The consolidated case included lawsuits filed in 2017 by the firm of McGuire Law P.C., and in 2018 by the firms of Edelson P.C. and Stephan Zouras LLP. All of the law firms are based in Chicago.
The lawsuits accused ADP of violating the Illinois BIPA law. The actions allege the HR vendor failed to obtain written authorization from those working for its employer customers before those employers required the workers to scan their fingerprints on so-called biometric time clocks using ADP technology, when beginning and ending work shifts.
Further, the lawsuits alleged ADP didn’t provide notices to those employees of ADP customers concerning how ADP would store, share and ultimately destroy the scanned prints.
The lawsuits had asked the court to award damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation, as allowed by the BIPA law. The law has been interpreted to mean violations could be counted as each time a worker scanned their fingerprints.
With tens of thousands of workers in Illinois potentially using ADP devices daily over the past five years, this could have placed the vendor at risk of millions or even billions of dollars in damages.
Similar lawsuits have been filed against other HR and timeclock vendors.
A lawsuit against ADP rival Kronos remains pending in federal court in Chicago.
Timeclock vendor NovaTime recently agreed to settle similar BIPA-related class actions against that company for as much as $14 million. The Stephan Zouras firm was expected to receive at least $1.36 million in fees from that deal, though they could receive more under the NovaTime deal.
ADP had fought the class actions against them over the past three years.
The company had secured an initial dismissal of the lawsuits, as Judge Atkins initially ruled ADP can’t be held liable for how its customers chose to use the biometric timekeeping devices sold by ADP.
The plaintiffs then amended their complaints. ADP moved earlier this year to dismiss those new complaints, as well.
In late 2019, the three firms also fought among each other for control of the litigation, with the Edelson and Stephan Zouras firms looking to push the McGuire firm to the rear of the action.
Judge Atkins utlimately appointed all three firms as co-lead counsel in the action.
Earlier this year, the case went to mediation, and the parties agreed to settle for a total payout of $25 million.
Under the settlement agreement, the plaintiffs’ lawyers from the three firms are allowed to ask the court to award them as much as 36% of the total settlement as attorney fees for their work on the case.
According to Atkins’ Nov. 6 order granting preliminary approval, those seeking a payout from the potential pot of available damages need to file a claim, using provided claim forms, and will need to include the names of the employers for whom they worked from June 2013 to Nov. 6, 2020.
The potential class will include anyone who worked for an employer in Illinois during those seven years that used an ADP-branded fingerprint scanning timeclock.
Anyone who participates in the settlement would be prohibited from suing ADP on their own for damages under the BIPA law. But they would still be allowed to also sue their employers under the BIPA law for the same alleged violations.
Those not wishing to participate in the class action settlement have until Jan. 18, 2021, to object to the settlement, or ask to be excluded.
Those wishing to be included in the settlement have until Feb. 8, 2021, to file a claim, according to Judge Atkins’ order.
A final approval hearing for the settlement has been scheduled for Feb. 10, 2021.
ADP has been represented in the case by attorney David Layden, of the firm of Jenner & Block, of Chicago.