Wednesday, December 16, 2020
It is becoming the data privacy version of paint by numbers: a plaintiff files a putative class action against their employer, alleging that the employer collected employees’ biometric information in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). Well, in the most recent permutation of the litany of BIPA litigations filed this year, a federal court held that claims under BIPA should not be remanded to state court and also that a complaint met federal pleading standards to withstand a motion to dismiss.
Roberson v. Maestro Consulting Servs. Llc, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 233868 (S.D. Ill. 2020).
Plaintiffs were employed by Defendants, a network of various nursing homes. To track Plaintiffs’ time and attendance, Defendants collected, and Plaintiffs scanned, fingerprints or handprints for time and attendance purposes. Plaintiffs filed suit in state court, asserting that Defendants’ practices violated BIPA.
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Nursing Home Workers Can t Get BIPA Suit Remanded
Law360 (December 14, 2020, 9:26 PM EST) An Illinois federal judge on Monday rejected an attempt from nursing home network workers to return to state court their claims the network violated the state s Biometric Information Privacy Act with its fingerprint timekeeping system and said union members are preempted from suing.
Applying a series of recent BIPA rulings on the heated question of which courts have jurisdiction over the cases, U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel said most of the workers claims should proceed in federal court. She dismissed all claims against Maestro Consulting Services LLC from union members, saying they were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act..