Amex
to Settle Discrimination Lawsuit
By
REUTERS, from NYTimes on the Web, February 21, 2002
NEW
YORK (Reuters) - American Express Co. (AXP.N) said on Thursday it agreed to
pay $31 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit, becoming the latest big
financial firm to settle allegations it treated women unfairly.
The firm's money-management unit, American Express
Financial Advisors Inc., also agreed to name a diversity officer and start
mandatory diversity training for financial advisers, Marie Davis, a firm
spokeswoman, said on Thursday.hiring of women to 32 percent of all new financial
advisers. Currently, about a quarter of the company's 11,500 financial advisers
are women, Davis said.
Employees of the firm had alleged that they were
denied equal pay and promotions. News of the settlement appeared earlier in the
day in The Wall Street Journal.
``We took these allegations very seriously because
they are contrary to our culture and our values,'' Davis said. ``We investigated
the allegations, and we believe we did not discriminate against our women
advisers. But we wanted to get this behind us and move on.''
In recent years, other big financial firms,
including Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER.N) and Citigroup Inc. (C.N) Salomon Smith
Barney unit have settled discrimination lawsuits filed on behalf of female
employees.
The American Express settlement first must be
approved by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., Davis said.
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