New Jersey Employment Lawyers Blog
JP Morgan-Chase (“JPMC”) has settled a class action lawsuit brought by male employees who alleged they were denied being provided benefits on equivalent terms as female employees, under JPMC’s primary caregiver (“PCG”) policy. The male plaintiffs in this sex discrimination lawsuit claimed that JPMC treated them differently from their female coworkers between 2011 and 2017, when they were denied the sixteen weeks of parental leave their female coworkers were provided following the birth of their children and instead limiting them to two weeks of parental leave as “secondary caregivers.” The terms of the settlement require that JPMC establish a five million-dollar ($5,000,000) compensation fund to compensate the class of male primary caregivers, comprising nearly 5,000 fathers. The settlement has been jointly presented to Federal Magistrate Judge Michael R. Barrett, of the United States District Court of Ohio, Southern District, for court approval.
Derek Rotondo, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit against JPMC, initiated the suit in 2017 when he was denied status as a primary caregiver. Rotondo alleged that he was told by the company that the mother was the presumptive primary caregiver. As a result, Rotondo was denied the sixteen weeks of leave he sought and should have received as his child’s primary caregiver, and instead was given only two weeks of leave. Shortly after being denied the time he should have been awarded as a primary caregiver, Rotondo filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) against JPMC, alleging that this denial of primary caregiver status and thus denial of fourteen (14) weeks of parental leave constituted unlawful gender discrimination in violation of Title VII. JPMC soon after reversed course and granted Rotondo the full sixteen (16) weeks to which he was entitled.
While the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) provides fathers and mothers with the same rights for job protected leave to bond with newborn children or newly adopted children, some companies offer greater job protection or even paid leave to their employees in excess of what is required under Federal law. When an employer offers such additional rights to leave or job protection, these rights must be extended to their employees without reference to or distinction based on that employee’s gender. The issues raised in this lawsuit illustrate the importance for employers to ensure that they treat all employees, regardless of their sex, in the same manner and provide them with the same benefits and privileges of employment.