Staffing firm Snelling Employment LLC has been hit with a class action for allegedly violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in the way it required workers to scan their face when punching the clock at work, according to documents filed March 5 in Cook County Civil Court.
Plaintiff Anissa Dembry, of St. Louis, allegedly worked for the defendant while she lived in Illinois and was required to track her time at work by allowing her face to be scanned to verify her identity when she punched the clock in and out, according to the complaint.
Snelling Employment is based in Richardson, Texas.
Dembry accuses Snelling of violating the BIPA law by not providing her or any other qualifying member of the class with notices concerning how the company would store her biometric data or how long it would be stored for; by not providing a biometric data retention or destruction policy; by not obtaining written consent to collect, store or use biometric data; and by allegedly making her biometric data available to its time clock vendor.
The company faces potential damges of $1,000 per each negligent violation, and each reckless BIPA violation is subject to $5,000 in damages. Individual violations have been defined as each time a worker scans their face when punching the clock at the start and end of a work shift.
Dembry is represented by attorneys Brandon M. Wise and Paul A. Lesko, of the firm of Peiffer, Wolf, Carr, Kane and Conway LLP, of St. Louis.