Wendy’s Employees, Franchise Owner Agree to $5.85M Settlement Over Finger Scans

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Wendy’s Employees Finger Scan Settlement Overview:

• Who: Wendy’s employees who worked for franchise owner All Star Management in Illinois.
• Why: All Star allegedly required employees to clock in and out using a finger scan without following state privacy law.
• Where: Illinois

Wendy’s employees who filed a class action lawsuit have reached a $5.85 million settlement with the owner of several Illinois restaurants over alleged violations of state privacy law.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge granted final approval to the settlement Sept. 2, 2021.

The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit alleged franchise owner All Star Management Inc. required Wendy’s employees to use a fingerprint scanner to clock in and out for their shifts without first informing them in writing that such biometric data would be collected, stored, and otherwise used. 

The company also allegedly failed to obtain a written release from the employees, failed to inform them in writing of the purpose and length of time for which the information was being collected, and failed to publish a publicly available retention schedule for the data’s destruction.

All of these allegations would be violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

BIPA was enacted to provide certain protections pertaining to the privacy of individuals’ biometric information, such as finger, face, and eye scans.

Under BIPA, employers are required to not only get permission in writing before collecting an individual’s biometric data, they must also provide written policies regarding how long the information will be stored and when and how it will be destroyed.

The Class established by the settlement agreement consists of anyone working for WAM Holdings Inc., doing business as All Star Management Inc., in Illinois who had any information that allegedly could be covered under BIPA, collected, obtained, received, captured, maintained, stored, transmitted, or disclosed by the defendant within the five years before the class action was filed through the date it was preliminarily approved, and who did not opt out of the settlement.

All Star, which owns 39 franchises in Illinois, denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

There are an estimated 9,722 Class Members.

Each Class Member is expected to receive a net payment of about $384.09, according to the settlement agreement.

Claim forms will not be required for participation in this settlement. Checks will be mailed automatically to those who did not opt out.

Wendy’s faced a similar class action lawsuit in 2018. That class action also alleged Illinois BIPA violations, arguing the company’s collection of employee fingerprints posed “serious and irreversible privacy risks.”

Are you a Wendy’s employee? Did you scan your finger to clock in and out of work in Illinois? Let us know in the comments below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Ryan F. Stephan, James B. Zouras, and Haley R. Jenkins of Stephan Zouras LLP; and David Fish and Mara A. Baltabols of Fish Potter Bolanos PC.

The Wendy’s Employees BIPA Class Action Lawsuit is Kelly O., et al. v. WAM Holdings Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 19-CH-11575, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, County Department, Chancery Division.

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