A Chicago KFC franchisee has been hit with a class action lawsuit, accusing the company of allegedly violating Illinois' biometrics privacy law by requiring workers to scan fingerprints to use point of sale registers and punch the clock.
Fullerton Chicken Inc. violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.
The law requires companies to obtain a written release before collecting and storing biometric information such as fingerprints, the lawsuit states.
Fullerton "required employees, including Plaintiff, to scan their fingerprints on a daily basis by using their fingerprints with the fingerprint scanner so that Defendant could track the number of hours worked," the lawsuit states
The company allegedly failed to obtain express written consent from employees when it introduced the biometric system.
"Defendant never informed Plaintiffs of the specific purpose and length of time for which their biometric identifiers or information would be collected, stored and used," the suit alleges. "Defendant did not have written, publicly available policies identifying their retention schedules or guidelines for permanently destroying users’ biometric identifiers or information."
The lawsuit seeks $5,000 for each intentional violation of the law and $1,000 for each negligent violation.
Payouts under such lawsuits can quickly climb to what judges and defendants alike have described as "astronomical" levels, after the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that the BIPA law should be interpreted to define "individual violations" as each time a company scans someone's biometric identifier over a period beginning five years before the lawsuit was filed. When multiplied across entire workforces, potential judgments under BIPA could spiral quickly into many millions of dollars.
The Illinois Supreme Court has also repeatedly ruled that plaintiffs don't ever have to actually prove they were harmed by the alleged improper collection of their biometric data to make such payment claims.
Attorneys typically claim about one third of such payouts.
The plaintiffs are represented by Jordan Richards, of Jordan Richards PLLC, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.