Aparna Komarla of the Covid-in-Custody Project reports that a sheriff’s office claims it is complying with state law on ascertaining its employees’ vaccination status, but is not releasing information in response to freedom of information requests because it would violate employees’ medical privacy. Our most recent public records request for the staff vaccination rate, however,…
Category: Workplace
Seeing scorpions: UPS right to fire employee over marijuana use, court rules
Daniel Fisher reports: A UPS sales manager who told coworkers he saw scorpions and repeatedly asked the same question can’t claim protection under an Arizona law that prohibits companies from firing employees if they test positive for marijuana, an appeals court ruled. The package-delivery service supplied enough additional evidence, including statements from three coworkers, to…
State Auto May Have to Defend Chicago Grocer for Fingerprint Use
Samantha Hawkins reports: State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company may have to defend a Chicago grocery store chain in a state biometric privacy case over its requirement that employees use fingerprints to clock-in, an Illinois federal judge ruled. The court denied the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the defense duty question. In the proposed class…
Illinois Privacy Act Trumped by Federal Labor Law, Judge Rules
Samantha Hawkins reports: Chicago’s Roosevelt University prevailed in a privacy suit brought by a labor union over its use of biometric hand scans, with an Illinois appeals court justice ruling that a federal labor law trumped the state’s privacy law. The case was brought by William Walton, an employee in Roosevelt’s campus safety department, who…