The Hooters chain of restaurants recently was in court recently to respond to a lawsuit alleging it violated an Illinois privacy law when it reportedly began collecting and storing employee fingerprints.
Hooters’ employees use their fingerprints to check in and out of work shifts and track the amount of hours they work. However, the lawsuit alleges the restaurant group — like other employers that have landed in hot water in Illinois in recent years — forced employees to scan their fingerprints into a company database without getting written authorization from employees and without explaining how the fingerprints would be stored.
The whistleblower was Anadelia Hernandez, who has worked as a server at the Hooters on North Wells in Chicago since 2014. According to the lawsuit, more than 100 employees have been required to scan a fingerprint every time they punched in and out of their work shifts. The lawsuit claims the practices violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, a law enacted in 2008 after a 2007 controversy in which Pay By Touch, a company that allowed consumers the ability to make purchases by scanning their fingerprints, went bankrupt.
Take action when aware of wrongdoing in your workplace
If you are interested in learning more about the steps to take if you have become aware of wrongdoing in your workplace, we encourage you to contact a skilled whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group. The assistance of an attorney can help you protect your rights and end corruption within a business or organization.
