The U.S. Justice Department and the city of Tampa have resolved a lawsuit filed by the department that accused the city of discrimination against scores of male employees who were denied the level of parental leave provided to women employees.
The consent decree settling the dispute was filed in the Middle District of Florida on Dec. 21. The city of Tampa was alleged to be carrying out a parental leave policy in 2017 and 2018 that discriminated against male employees seeking eight weeks off to provide primary care to newborns. Those workers sought 320 hours of parental leave but ultimately were considered secondary caregivers and given only 80 hours of leave, according to the Justice Department’s complaint.
This policy affected 150 male employees who worked for the city of Tampa, the complaint states. Such discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers employers’ pregnancy policies, according to the Justice Department.
“Men were consistently denied primary caregiver leave status, while Tampa regularly granted female caregivers the full 320 hours of primary caregiver leave,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
Under the terms of the consent decree, the city will credit 240 hours of additional leave time to each of the male workers who would have taken leave as primary caregivers had it been available to them in past years. Affected Tampa workers will also receive $300,000 in compensation under the decree, and the city must also adopt a new parental leave policy for secondary and primary caregivers that doesn’t discriminate based on gender.
The settlement grew out of an investigation by the federal Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation after employee Jeffrey Burger filed a complaint about the leave policy.
“This agreement sends a clear message that in providing paid or unpaid parental leave, employers must guarantee that those benefits are provided without reliance on presumptions about which parent can be the primary caregiver,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a prepared statement. “The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to enforce federal civil rights laws and ensure that employers provide all employees leave benefits without discrimination.”
City of Tampa officials declined to comment further about the specifics of the settlement but referred the Florida Record to a recent city resolution that denies the municipality discriminated against Burger or other male employees.
“The decree provides for payment by the city of a total of $300,000; $60,000 of which is to be paid to Mr. Burger, with the remaining $240,000 to be distributed to other similarly situated male employees, and other relief including reimbursement of leave, adoption of revised … parental leave policies and increased employee training on such policies,” the city resolution says.
Within a month of the decree taking effect, Tampa is required to designate an employee to serve as equal opportunity officer, who will investigate future allegations of harassment and retaliation in line with the terms of the agreement.
Tampa will also be required to provide training on prohibited employment practices under Title VII under the terms of the agreement.