JPMorgan Chase will pay $5 million to settle a class action lawsuit with male employees who alleged the company discriminated against them when it denied them the same amount of paid parental leave given to women at the company, according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Chase employee Derek Rotondo — whose sex discrimination charge led to the class action, according to ACLU — said in a complaint that he had asked to take 14 weeks of “primary caregiver” leave after his son was born, in line with Chase’s policy that such caregivers were allowed to take up to 16 weeks of paid leave following birth of a child.
But Rotondo alleged Chase’s HR department denied this request, saying that mothers were presumptively considered primary caregivers, while fathers were instead eligible for only two weeks of parental leave unless they could show their partners or spouses were incapacitated or had returned to work.
Rotondo filed suit in 2017 alleging sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and state law, ACLU said. After the charge was filed, Chase gave Rotondo 16 weeks of paid leave and clarified its policy as gender-neutral.
Members of the class include all male JPMorgan Chase employees nationwide who took the maximum amount of non-primary caregiver leave between 2011 and 2017, and who would have otherwise qualified for paid primary caregiver leave.
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