Morgan Stanley Class Action Alleges Pregnancy Based Discrimination

A former Morgan Stanley employee claims that she was fired by the investment bank due to discrimination against her pregnancy.

Chau Pham was employed at Morgan Stanley’s New York City office as a vice president for the bank’s fixed income division concerning North American foreign exchange sales.

Weeks after returning from her maternity leave, Pham was “ruthlessly” fired according to her recent class action lawsuit filed with the help of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal authority which enforces anti-discrimination employment laws. These laws prohibit the discrimination against “a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information,” according to the commission’s website.

Pham says her termination with the investment company was an act of discrimination based on her pregnancy, subsequent maternity leave, and breastmilk pumping needs.

Executive director David Greenberg and managing director Samer Oweida allegedly discriminated against her, a behavior that was “was fostered, ratified and allowed to occur based on policies, practices and messaging from the male-­dominated executive leadership at Morgan Stanley.”

The Morgan Stanley class action states that when Pham’s pregnancy first became common knowledge around her office, she was not met with congratulations and joy. Instead, Greenberg allegedly took an important account away from Pham without justification – assigning the responsibility to another.

According to the Morgan Stanley discrimination class action, shortly after her pregnancy announcement Pham received her first negative performance review.

“When Ms. Pham questioned Mr. Greenberg about her sudden negative performance review, Mr. Greenberg told her that Mr. Oweida instructed him to give her the negative review,” Pham claimed. “As part of the review, Mr. Greenberg acknowledged that Ms. Pham’s overall production was higher.”

Greenberg allegedly told her that he would take other accounts out of her responsibility, prompting her to discuss the issue with Oweida. She reportedly expressed concern that the actions were unlawful discrimination, but Oweida allegedly brushed the concerns off.

The Morgan Stanley employee class action states that before going on maternity leave, Pham was assured that her performance statistics for the year would not be skewed by her time off and would only consider the time she was actively working. However, the opposite was reportedly true.

“Not only did Morgan Stanley strip Ms. Pham of sales credits and accounts, but it also manipulated her numbers to make it appear that her production was down when it knew her overall production was higher,” the Morgan Stanley pregnancy bias class action argues.

After returning from her maternity leave, Pham was allegedly discriminated against by Greenberg for pumping breast milk after being advised by her doctor to do so. Greenberg allegedly asked inappropriate questions including “How long do you plan to do this [pump/breastfeed]?” and “Are you sure you want to keep doing this [pumping]?”

Only 22 days after returning from maternity leave, after reportedly dealing with discrimination from her supervisors, Pham was allegedly “blindsided” by her termination.

She claims that the entire ordeal was a result of discrimination and that other women have experienced the same struggles while working for Morgan Stanley.

Pham has also published an open letter to Chairman and CEO James P. Goreman, calling on him to dissolve an arbitration agreement which limits the ability for employees such as Pham from taking legal action against Morgan Stanley.

“Taking away a woman’s right to a trial by a jury of her peers and providing perpetrators of discrimination with the comfort of secrecy only serves to facilitate bias and the continued marginalization of women on Wall Street,” Pham wrote in the letter.

Goreman recently made the news when it was announced that he was paid $29 million in 2018 for his position as CEO of Morgan Stanley. The executive, who has been in his position since 2010, received a seven percent raise from last year when he was paid $27 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Pham is represented by Jeanne M. Christensen and Tanvir H. Rahman of Wigdor LLP.

The Morgan Stanley Pregnancy Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, New York District Office.