A senior living facility in Chicago is under fire for allegedly violating privacy laws by collecting employees' biometric data without their consent. Bertrand Bayeg filed a class-action complaint against The Admiral at the Lake in the Circuit Court of Cook County on July 2019, accusing the facility of using a timekeeping system that scanned and stored employees' facial geometry.
Bayeg, who worked as a certified nursing assistant at The Admiral from September 2017 to January 2019, claims that the facility required employees to use UltiPro Touchbase, a timekeeping system that captured and analyzed their facial geometry each time they clocked in or out. According to Bayeg, The Admiral did not inform employees about the purpose of collecting this data, how long it would be stored, or if it would ever be deleted. Furthermore, employees were not asked to sign any release forms authorizing the collection and storage of their biometric data. This practice allegedly violates sections 15(a) and (b) of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which mandates that private employers must have a publicly available policy for permanently deleting biometric data and must obtain written consent from employees before collecting such data.
The Admiral responded by filing a motion to dismiss the case in November 2019, arguing that UltiPro only took photographs of employees, which are excluded from BIPA's definition of "biometric identifiers." However, the court denied this motion, allowing Bayeg's claim to proceed. Discovery began in October 2020, revealing further details about UltiPro's functionality and The Admiral's compliance—or lack thereof—with BIPA requirements.
In November 2022, Bayeg filed an amended motion for class certification on behalf of himself and 366 other current and former employees affected by these practices. He argued that common questions of law and fact predominated over individual issues since all class members were subjected to the same non-compliant policies. The court agreed with Bayeg’s arguments regarding numerosity, commonality, adequacy of representation, and appropriateness for class action resolution.
The Admiral appealed this decision but faced challenges in proving that individualized damages outweighed common issues among class members. They contended that calculating damages would require determining specific details for each employee’s work history and potential violations. However, the court found that statutory damages could be calculated using existing records documenting each instance an employee used UltiPro.
Ultimately, the appellate court affirmed the circuit court’s decision to grant class certification. This ruling means that Bertrand Bayeg will represent hundreds of current and former employees in seeking statutory damages for alleged BIPA violations by The Admiral at the Lake.
Attorneys involved include Mary A. Smigielski and others from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP representing The Admiral at the Lake; Keith J. Keogh and Gregg M. Barbakoff from Keogh Law Ltd., representing Bertrand Bayeg; with Honorable Alison C. Conlon presiding over the case identified as No. 19 CH 8828.