EAST ST. LOUIS - Graphic Packaging of Atlanta will pay about $1,000 each to 600 individuals who worked at its Centralia plant from 2016 to 2021 to settle a biometric privacy invasion claim, if U.S. District Judge David Dugan approves.
Graphic Packaging and plaintiff Jocelyn Roberts of Centralia moved for approval of the settlement on Jan. 19, four months after successful mediation.
The motion specified a $992,844 recovery with about $608,400 for workers, about $374,444 for attorney fees and expenses, and $10,000 for Roberts.
On Jan. 29, Dugan set a hearing June 11 for.
Roberts worked in the plant in 2016 as an employee of ABBCO maintenance company.
Attorney William Sweetnam of Chicago filed a class action complaint for Roberts in 2021 under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, providing $1,000 for negligent violation and $5,000 for reckless and intentional violation.
Sweetnam claimed Roberts and other employees were required to place their fingers on a handprint scanner, which collected and stored employees' handprint each time they clocked in and out.
He claimed Graphic Packaging didn’t adequately inform Roberts of its biometrics collection practices, or obtain written consent, or provide any data retention or destruction policies.
He added that Roberts and the other class members didn’t sign a release allowing Graphic Packaging to collect or store their information.
Graphic Packaging then moved to stay pending Illinois Supreme Court decisions regarding BIPA, and Dugan granted it.
The Supreme Court ruled that the law’s statute of limitations ran five years and that each contact with a scanner counted as a separate violation.
Dugan lifted the stay last March and ordered the parties to indicate a reasonable trial date.
The parties didn’t agree, and Dugan set bench trial to begin this July 11.
Graphic Packaging counsel Jessica Causgrove of Chicago filed affirmative defenses in April, claiming it didn’t collect, capture, store, obtain, or use biometric information as the law defines it.
She claimed the law amounts to unconstitutional special legislation.
She also claimed Roberts and the class provided prior written consent.
The parties then notified Dugan of an agreement on Oct. 31 and advised him they needed time to identify all class members.
They credited former First District Appellate Judge Thomas Rakowski for successful mediation.