When A Workplace Dispute Goes Very Public New York Times November 25, 2001

“Merrill Lynch Discriminates Against Women” Many small planes carrying signs reading this message over several events hosted by Merrill Lynch Many protest that women brokers were not being treated the same as male brokers in the company

Male vs. Female Lawsuit filed in 1997, stated that women at Merrill Lynch were being discriminated against. The males were assigned larger more active accounts If women complained they were criticized and ridiculed.

Company Response Merrill Lynch has denied that there “was systemic discrimination at the firm but has acknowledged some incidences of inappropriate behavior”, which it says it has fixed. Many programs were put into place to prevent incidents of discrimination from happening At the time (1998), they had settled 600 of over 900 cases

No Improvement The women thought that once the company started settling the claims and implementing the programs that condition would change. They felt that even after the majority of the claims were settled, that the conditions at Merrill Lynch has not improved.

A New Generation Class-action lawyer, Linda Friedman of the Chicago law firm Stowell & Friedman Last year, claimants in Merrill Lynch's office in Lawrenceville, N.J., called Ms. Friedman to say that a young broker, Deena Kobrin, was not being allowed to manage by herself a huge customer account she had solicited. A partnership of male brokers was assigned to share its management with her. Ms. Friedman said she had approached Merrill and said, ''It's happening all over again to a new generation of women.'' She requested an independent audit of the office.

The Results Results of that audit were shared with women in the office and the women believed that it supported their claims that they had not been given their fair share of account distributions for many years. Shortly after the audit, Deena Kobrin resigned her position because she felt that she was being retaliated against.

Auditing Merrill Lynch decided to try a new auditing structure (rolling basis) so that they could account for who does the distributions better. Although this helped to relax the minds of some, other still did not see it as an improvement. Barbie O'Connor said auditing ''is not going to make up for the years of game-playing that's gone on behind closed doors.'' Ms. O'Connor said she had been passed over for a promotion and pressured to quit, which she did. She has vowed to continue protesting

Changes? According to Merrill, the percentage of women in the broker ranks has risen slightly, to 15 percent today, from 14 percent in 1997, and now totals 2,200. But the firm has more women in high-ranking positions than ever: Rosemary T. Berkery was recently promoted to general counsel and executive vice president, becoming the first woman at the firm to hold either position.

Recommendation Merrill Lynch should face the problem head on and show the women they are making an effort to change. Look at the distribution of their accounts and make sure they are evenly distributed through out men and women. Need to show the protestors numbers that allow them to see the improvements they are making.