McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, LLC

Overview

McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, LLC (Supreme Court of Illinois, Feb. 3, 2022): The Supreme Court of Illinois unanimously held that exclusivity provisions of the state Workers’ Compensation Act did not prevent an employee from seeking recovery from her employer for violations of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The employer allegedly violated BIPA when it used a fingerprint timekeeping system and stored employees’ fingerprint data without informing the employees (1) that their data would be stored, (2) the purposes or duration of the storage, and (3) without seeking consent from employees to do so. The employer claimed it could not be held liable for violation of BIPA, because the Workers’ Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for injuries in the workplace. The court disagreed, finding that the loss of the ability to maintain a person’s privacy rights are different in nature and scope than the injuries covered exclusively by Workers’ Compensation. Read the full decision here.

View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – April 15, 2022.

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