A class action lawsuit accuses the Panduit Corporation of violating Illinois privacy laws by using a fingerprint reader system to track employee hours.
Plaintiff Steward Hinton filed a class action lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the Panduit Corporation, citing negligence and carelessness in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
According to the lawsuit, Hinton is a former employee of the Panduit Corporation, having worked for the company for two years from August 2019 through January 2020. Hinton claims that during his employment with Panduit, he was required to use a fingerprint reader system to track his work hours.
The lawsuit states that BIPA requires that prior to collecting biometric data, including fingerprints, companies must inform employees in writing that their biometric data will be collected and stored. It also states that employees must be informed in writing of the specific purpose for which the biometric data is being collected and for how long it will be stored. Additionally, BIPA requires that companies must receive a written release from the employee for the collection of their biometric data.
Hinton alleges the defendant invades the privacy of its employees by collecting and storing their fingerprints without informed consent. He further claims that the company never received a release from him allowing them to collect his fingerprints, and he never authorized the company to collect his fingerprints for this use.
The lawsuit is similar to thousands of others filed against employers of all types and sizes in the state since 2015, when the first class actions rolled into court under the privacy law. The growth in the number of such class actions has only accelerated through the years, as courts have routinely ruled plaintiffs don't need to prove they were actually harmed by the data collection to demand settlements and judgments potentially worth many millions of dollars, or more, depending on the size of the company.
Plaintiffs can demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation under the BIPA law. The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled the law should be interpreted to define individual "violations" as each time a company scans someone's biometrics, no matter how many times it may have been done before, over the preceding five years. Thus, the damages can be multiplied against hundreds or even thousands of "individual violations" across an entire workforce.
As in the other cases, Hinton is seeking monetary damages for himself and everyone in his class action lawsuit, plus court costs, attorney fees, and any other relief the court deems proper. He is also requesting the court issue an order requiring Panduit to cease the collection of biometric data without informed written consent.
The plaintiff is represented by attorneys with the firm of Stephan Zouras, of Chicago.
Hinton and his lawyers also filed a similar class action at the same time against another of Hinton's employers, Frito-Lay Inc.