JP Morgan to pay historic $5m paternity leave settlement

JP Morgan will pay $5m to settle a discrimination case involving parental leave for fathers.

Derek Rotondo said the bank denied him a parental leave benefit available to all employees who are "primary caregivers" of a new-born.

He filed a lawsuit against the firm in 2017, and a class action led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) followed.

The ACLU said the settlement was the first of its kind, BBC News reportss.

Mr Rotondo said he had simply wanted to spend more time with his children.

The organisation led the class action on behalf of male employees who claimed they were unlawfully denied access to paid parental leave on the same terms as mothers from 2011 to 2017.

In the complaint, Mr Rotondo said that when he sought to take 14 weeks of "primary caregiver" leave after his son was born, JP Morgan told him that fathers were only eligible for two weeks of paid parental leave unless they could show that their spouses or partners were incapacitated or had returned to work.

Under the bank's policy, he did not qualify as a "primary caregiver" because his wife had "no medical limitations" on her ability to care for their child.

In addition, his wife, as a teacher, had the summer off, which meant he could not show that she had returned to work.