Class Action Lawsuits is an extraordinary tool to hold companies accountable. Recently, we have seen many examples of corporate greed and class-action lawsuit efforts in the healthcare industry. Many of these lawsuits have been successful in holding companies accountable for harmfully discriminating against its employees.
The recent Duke University Lacrosse scandal is a prime example of how a lawsuit can force a corporation to address problems. In this instance, a group of Duke University lacrosse players filed a federal complaint against the school, the Department of Education, and several Duke athletic department officials for what they believe to be widespread discrimination.
Class Action Lawsuit Against Opmex
On Wednesday, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a lawsuit against Opmex, which is the largest pharmaceutical provider in the United States. The complaint names as defendants three current and former top executives, alleging that they knew for two years that Opmex was improperly capturing personal information on millions of current and former federal employees.
This violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and the Privacy and Electronic Signature Act (PECSA). The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Office of Personnel and Veterans Affairs.
The FCRA is a law that was enacted in response to a series of credit crunch suits that were brought against credit reporting agencies for improperly charging thousands of federal employees for services they did not need.
In one case, for example, it ordered the largest federal employee union to reinstate its membership. As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir in the labor market and resulted in the largest number of firings and resignations since the act was enacted. Federal agencies were bombarded with Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the matter, which resulted in quite a bit of information coming out about the alleged deceit. On top of all this, there was another class action lawsuit against Opmex for allegedly violating the privacy rights of many federal employees. This is also currently underway.
The PECSA or Privacy Rule is what actually causes the massive amounts of lawsuits against Opmex.
Under the PECSA, all “disclosures” of protected data must be in writing and signed by the person being disclosed. The problem with this rule is that there have been cases where even when a breach occurs, the parties do not sign the agreement allowing the disclosure of the sensitive data. Such cases have led to class action lawsuits against Opmex, its former federal employees, and the United States Department of Justice. One of the more recent cases involves a data breach that occurred at a US navy base in San Diego.
Two plaintiffs (an African American and an Asian American) filed suit against Opmex, claiming that they were the victim of illegal racial discrimination and breach of their constitutional right to privacy.
The plaintiffs further claimed that due to the breach of their civil rights, and because of Opmex’s conduct, they are suffering financial hardship as a result of their inability to obtain jobs. The class action lawsuit says that after the two individuals became aware of the breach of their constitutional right to privacy, they decided to form a class in order to seek damages from Opmex. They are seeking monetary damages and attorney fees. If awarded, this case could greatly benefit the plaintiff class, as it could force Opmex to change their ways in dealing with their employees, and could possibly set a precedent for other workers who may be affected by Opmex’s conduct.
In order to avoid class action lawsuits like this one, or at least prevent such cases from occurring, a company should make sure that they know all the facts before they engage in any business dealings with federal employees.
Federal employees have been found to engage in data breaches of all kinds on a regular basis. These data breaches can range from stealing personal information so a person can steal a government employee’s government benefits, to stealing trade secrets to a company employee can steal another worker’s idea or to simply stealing data in order to benefit from the sale of the information to other companies.
While there is no proof linking any specific instance of data breaches to Opmex, there has been a pattern that seems to exist. If you feel that you may have been a victim of a data breach, you should consult an attorney to get your case taken care of properly.
