Consistent with several federal decisions, an Illinois Court of Appeals panel recently determined that a union employee’s claims against his employer under the Illinois Biometric Privacy Information Act (“BIPA”) were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”). In Walton v. Roosevelt University, 2022 IL App (1st) 210011 (1st Dist. 2022), a bargaining unit employee of the University brought a class action claiming the University violated various provisions of BIPA by using a biometric time-clock system to scan his fingerprints without first obtaining his informed written consent and by disclosing his biometric information to a third-party payroll service provider without his consent.
The Illinois Appellate panel was asked to determine whether the claims asserted by the union employee were “preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act, which governs most disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements.” Walton v. Roosevelt University, 2022 IL App (1st) 210011 ¶8. Answering in the affirmative, the panel reasoned that since the timekeeping procedures were covered by the subject collective bargaining agreement, any dispute regarding the employer’s use of the biometric timeclock or the union’s consent to biometric data collection required the interpretation or administration of the collective bargaining agreement. Thus, the panel held that the LMRA prevents the union employee from usurping the bargained-for dispute resolution requirements in the...
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