Steel dust recycling company American Zinc and its corporate parent, Befesa, have been added to the growing list of big employers in Illinois targeted by class action lawsuits under the state's Genetic Information Privacy Act for allegedly improperly asking workers about their family medical history.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiff Alex Koziol, identified as a resident of Indiana who applied for work at American Zinc's facility in Chicago.
According to its website, American Zinc and Befesa operate a facility in suburban Calumet.
Befesa is an international company, headquartered in Luxembourg. It operates in the U.S. as Befesa Zinc US.
According to the complaint, at the time he applied for a job, Koziol was expected to answer questions concerning his family medical history during physical exams, as part of the hiring process.
This practice, they argue, breaches GIPA regulations that prohibit employers from soliciting or requiring genetic information from potential employees.
The lawsuit is seeking a potentially big payout from Befesa of up to $15,000 per alleged violation, as allowed under GIPA, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the action to include anyone who applied for a job at Befesa in Illinois in the past five years.
In recent months, a growing group of plaintiffs' lawyers have filed similar GIPA-related class actions against dozens of other large Illinois employers, seeking potentially massive paydays. The lawsuits have followed a similar pattern to those set by litigation under Illinois' controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act, which has resulted in a litany of multi-million dollar settlements, and hundreds of millions of dollars in collective attorney fees paid to class action lawyers who file the suits.
Legal observers believe trial lawyers, including those who have reaped big paydays from the BIPA-related lawsuits, are now trying to similarly land big money from the similar GIPA lawsuits.