A Cook County judge has signed off on final approval of a $3.5 million settlement ending a class action against human resources vendor Ceridian, which was accused of violating a state biometrics privacy law through the fingerprint scanning time clocks it sold to its employer customers.
Cook County Circuit Judge Celia Gamrath, presiding for purposes of final approval, issued a final judgment and order of dismissal with prejudice Nov. 30 after conducting a final approval hearing earlier in the day. That order follows a May filing by Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond Mitchell granting preliminary approval of the deal.
Mitchell has since been appointed to the Illinois First District Appellate Court.
Judge Mitchell's order gave potential class members until Sept. 30 to submit claims. Attorneys with the firms of Edelson PC, of Chicago, and Naperville’s Fish Potter Bolaños filed a motion Sept. 22 seeking final approval. They estimated participating class members would each net about $700.
According to that filing, Ceridian HCM sells a cloud-based timeclock system that uses a fingerprint scanner. Named plaintiff Rachel LaBarre, who sued in May 2019, alleged the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by storing data without consent and failing to create a data retention and destruction policy. She said she used a Ceridian timeclock device at a Standard Market grocery store in Chicago’s western suburbs from 2018-2019.
The firms representing LaBarre are in line to split 35% of the overall fund, which works out to about $1.23 million. LaBarre will get $5,000 as an incentive reward. From the remainder, settlement payouts will be prorated among those whose claims are approved from a class of 14,142 people who used a Ceridian fingerprint timeclock in Illinois from May 18, 2014, through May 17, 2022. After 180 days, money from uncashed checks or electronic deposits not processed will go to the Illinois Bar Foundation.
The settlement is similar to other lawsuits brought under BIPA in recent years against timeclock vendors, like ADP and Kronos, as well as the employers they serve. Gamrath, however, noted people could not participate in the Ceridian class if they were members of one of five lawsuits in which food sellers were defendants: Edmond v. DPI Specialty Foods, Gonzalez v. Richelieu Foods and Terry v. Griffith Foods Group, in Cook County Court; Struck and Jones v. Woodman’s Food Market in Lake County; and Quarles v. Pret a Manger in federal court in Chicago.
Gamrath said efforts to notify class members reached 98.4% of the pool with an approved claims rate of 26.2% and only three people seeking to be excluded. She compared that to a 2021 privacy lawsuit against Facebook in federal court in California where a 22% claims rate was described as “impressive” and “unprecedented.”
In addition to the payout, Ceridian also agreed to maintain a public data retention and deletion plan, already on its corporate website, as well as to establish a process for its customers to secure informed, written consent from their employees before they begin scanning fingerprints. That process will be integrated with on-screen instructions for Ceridian’s Dayforce timeclock system.
As part of the settlement terms, class members retained the right to pursue BIPA claims against employers. This contrasts with other litigation where plaintiffs sued employers and vendors jointly and have been “forced to release the third-party vendor for nothing,” according to the motion for final approval.
Ceridian has been represented by attorney Molly K. McGinley, of K&L Gates, of Chicago.
Plaintiffs have been represented by attorneys Jay Edelson, J. Eli Wade-Scott and Schuyler Ufkes, of the Edelson firm, and David Fish, of Fish Potter Bolaños.