The Illinois Supreme Court decided on February 3rd, 2022, that the Worker’s Compensation Act does not prohibit claims against employers under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. This decision by the Illinois Supreme Court precludes yet another possible defense frequently used in Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) cases.

The plaintiff sued a company that provides inpatient nursing and rehabilitative care in the current case. The plaintiff claimed that the company violated BIPA by failing to obtain the required written releases from its employees for collecting, using, and storing biometric information. In addition, the company did not inform its employees that this biometric information was being collected, give their employees a written retention policy, or notify them in writing of the purpose of the biometric data or the length of time this information was going to be collected, used, or stored. The defendant responded to the claim by filing a motion to dismiss it, asserting that the Worker’s Compensation Act barred this claim through its exclusive remedy provision.

This claim was rejected by the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, because the plaintiff’s injury concerned privacy rights rather than an injury that could be compensated through Worker’s Compensation. Also, according to a panel of the intermediate appellate Court, a claim for statutory damages under BIPA is not prohibited by the exclusive remedy provisions in the Worker’s Compensation Act. 

After this decision, the Illinois Supreme Court would review the case. The Court explained that Worker’s Compensation was designed to compensate workers for injuries that affect their ability to do work-related activities. However, the injuries resulting from a business’s violating BIPA are different from the physical and psychological injuries that are compensated for under the Worker’s Compensation Act. The Court also stated that the text of BIPA shows that the legislature did not expect BIPA claims to be handled through Worker’s Compensation. 

Additionally, the Court decided that employees were not barred from claiming statutory damages under BIPA because of the exclusivity provision in the Worker’s Compensation Act. The Court also found that the statutory language in BIPA showed that the legislature did not intend it to be pre-empted by Worker’s Compensation. In addition to this, the Court stated that the legislature was aware that employees would pursue BIPA claims and yet chose to have these claims treated the same as non-employee claims.

Therefore, the Illinois Supreme Court decided that the plaintiff could pursue their claim in the Circuit Court rather than through the Workers’ Compensation Commission.

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