JPMorgan sees surge in coronavirus cases after pressuring traders to go to work: report

JPMorgan pressured its traders to come into work despite a coronavirus outbreak on its Midtown trading floor, a new report alleges — and now nearly two dozen traders are sick and another 65 are in quarantine. In just three weeks some 20 employees on one floor in the investment bank’s Madison Avenue headquarters have tested …

JPMorgan pressured its traders to come into work despite a coronavirus outbreak on its Midtown trading floor, a new report alleges — and now nearly two dozen traders are sick and another 65 are in quarantine.

In just three weeks some 20 employees on one floor in the investment bank’s Madison Avenue headquarters have tested positive for the virus, with another 65 quarantined, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Traders responsible for buying and selling stock broke down in tears when they were told they’d have to report into the Midtown office as the cases mounted, while top brass juggled their workers’ health and making money, the Journal expose said.

“There are risks to personal health, there are risks to public health. We are called upon to balance,” Jason Sippel, JPMorgan’s head of global equities, told employees Thursday, stressing their duty to report to work in person, the Journal said.

Several workers were told during the second week of March, as the first trader tested positive, that the bank did not yet have enough remote computer equipment to allow them to work from home.

A growing number of employees have since been allowed to work remotely, with about 80 percent of traders now doing so, a spokesman told the Journal.

Those who are still coming into the office are working more than six feet apart and at-risk employees have been sent home, he said.

“We recognize how stressful this is for those employees on the front lines who are supporting global markets,” a spokesman told the paper.

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