Emily Sortor  |  April 25, 2018

Category: Labor & Employment

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SPENCER , WISCONSIN- FEBRUARY 3, 2014 : Holiday Inn Hotel Front. Holiday Inn is a leading Hotel chain across the United StatesA class action lawsuit alleges Holiday Inn’s use of fingerprints to track employee hours violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

Plaintiff Thomas Robertson says he worked as a food and beverage manager for Holiday Inn’s River North Chicago location from 2010 to 2016.

He claims that he was required to scan his fingerprint by way of recording his hours, so that Holiday Inn could verify that his recorded hours were accurate.

The Holiday Inn class action lawsuit claims that because Robertson and other employees were not given the option to opt out of this practice, nor were they informed of how the information would be used, this practice violates BIPA.

This fingerprint class action lawsuit is one of a large number of class action lawsuits that have been filed recently claiming that companies have committed BIPA violations. These class action lawsuits have impacted companies across industries — hospitals, retailers, and even social media companies have come under fire for how they gather and store biometric data.

The Holiday Inn BIPA violation class action lawsuit states that biometric data is any data that relates to an individual’s biological traits – face scans, fingerprints, retinal scans, and DNA information allegedly fall under the category of biometric data.

Though BIPA was enacted more than 10 years ago, fingerprint-based systems for timekeeping and other purposes have risen in popularity in recent years, leading also to a rise in claims that companies are in violation of BIPA’s protections.

Robertson says that he and other employees were never provided with a full explanation of what their fingerprint scans would be used for, other than that they were needed to verify an employee’s hours. Additionally, they allegedly were not informed of how the data would be stored. He claims that the fingerprint data was shared with at least one third-party company.

The Holiday Inn class action lawsuit alleges that the company stored the fingerprint data in the company computer system, but did not tell the employees for how long the data would be stored, how it would be destroyed, or how and if it would be shared with others.

Robertson goes on to claim that neither he nor other employees were asked to sign a release allowing the company to record, store, use, or share their fingerprint data. Allegedly, this is in violation of BIPA because the law requires companies to obtain written releases from individuals from whom they intend to collect or store biometric data.

The Holiday Inn fingerprint class action lawsuit goes on to note that the BIPA requires written consent to be obtained within three years of a company collecting and storing an individual’s biometric data.

Robertson seeks damages on behalf of himself and all other past and present employees of Holiday Inn who had their biometric information collected and/or stored by the company. In accordance with BIPA guidelines, the Holiday Inn biometric data class action lawsuit seeks $5,000 for each willful BIPA violation and $1,000 for each negligent BIPA violation.

The plaintiff is represented by Andrew C. Ficzko, Ryan F. Stephan, James B. Zouras, and Stephan Zouras of Stephan Zouras LLP.

The Holiday Inn Employee Fingerprint Class Action Lawsuit is Thomas Robertson v. Hostmark Hospitality Group Inc., et al., Case No. 2018-CH-05194, in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

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2 thoughts onHoliday Inn Class Action: Use of Employee Fingerprints Violates Ill. Law

  1. Matthew budde says:

    I worked as executive chef from 2007 ‐2018 for effingham illinois and had to do facial recognition for clocking in and out even though I was salary. Was wondering if it was worth pursuing

  2. Thomas J. Potter says:

    I have a client who worked at the Rochelle, IL Holiday Inn Express & punched in with a thumbprint. What is the status or the class action? Please advise. Thanks. Thomas J. Potter

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