The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could file a class-action sex discrimination suit against investment banking firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as soon as next week. The Commission has been investigating the treatment of women working at Morgan Stanley for two years, following a complaint from convertible bond sales representative Allison K. Scheiffelin, who argued that she had been underpaid, excluded from important outings with clients and denied a promotion because of her sex. Such cases are often resolved in Wall Street arbitrators’ offices, independent of government agency intervention and without a lawsuitÑwith the notable exception of class-action cases filed against Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. Morgan Stanley and its lawyers have been negotiating with Scheiffelin and the EEOC, but refuse to acknowledge that she was a victim of discrimination, saying that she was one of the highest paid employees in her department and that she lost out in the promotion to another woman.
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