Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is fighting an £8.9 million ($11.9 million) claim from a former compliance manager who won a sex-discrimination ruling that he was unfairly fired after taking six months of paternity leave.
Jonathan Reeves, who worked in Goldman’s compliance department in London, won an employment tribunal ruling in December that the bank discriminated against him because he was male, and his dismissal in 2022, shortly after returning from leave, was unfair. The court, however, said there was 50% chance that the bank would have dismissed him anyway as part of a redundancy process.
The bank denied the allegations during the trial last year and is now contesting Reeves’ claim that he suffered millions of pounds worth of losses and damages. Lawyers for Goldman estimated his compensation should be between £120,913 and £239,717, according to documents given to the court before a hearing on Tuesday.
Wall Street banks have boosted their offer of time off for secondary caregivers even as the take up of extended paternity leave remains low. A 2023 UK government analysis found that only 5% of eligible working fathers in the country have taken up what is known as shared parental leave since it was introduced in 2015. A parliamentary panel report in June called for a substantial increase in the period of paternity leave saying the statutory two-week leave rules entrench outdated gender stereotypes about caring and harms families.
The two sides are contesting the extent of compensation as the bank disputes Reeves’ calculations of his future losses and damages.
Reeves was dismissed for taking the contractual paternity leave while a female employee would not have been dismissed after taking leave for childcare reasons, his lawyers said. Reeves declined to comment.
Reeves said that he was told shortly before his return to work that his role was at risk and, for the first time in his 15-year career, he had underperformed. His termination was confirmed less than five weeks later, something his lawyers said would not have happened to a “female employee in an equivalent position.”
Reeves was fired due to problems with his performance, lawyers for the bank countered during the trial last year.
“Goldman Sachs is a market leader in paid parental leave and encourages all working parents regardless of gender to take the full 26 weeks paid leave offered to them,’ a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said in a statement. “We strongly disagree with the allegations at this hearing and the accompanying claim for losses.”
At the UK employment tribunals, the maximum awards for unfair dismissal are capped at just over £118,000. However, if discrimination is proved then damages can be unlimited. Reeves’ £8.9 million claim includes compensation for injury to feelings, the loss in future earnings and stigma from the dismissal, which he argued has led to a number of failed job applications.
Reeves, who started working at Goldman in 2007, “lost his ability to pursue his chosen career or comparable employment,” he said in documents given to the court. The bank “should be liable for stigma losses that flow from its own unlawful conduct,” he said.
Reeves secured two well-paid contracts in senior positions since his dismissal and any future losses should extend to no more than three to six months after his dismissal, lawyers for the bank said.
Photo: The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters in the City of London with the city’s dragon symbol in the foreground. Photo credit: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
Topics Lawsuits
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