Settlement Looms in Class Action Accusing Dish of Bilking N.Y. Installers

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil for Southern New York granted Dish Network’s letter motion (docket 1:22-cv-08151) for a deadline extension to Nov. 15 to answer class-action allegations that it violated New York labor laws. The Dish response to the allegation was originally due Tuesday. “The purpose of the extension is to allow the parties to confer regarding Plaintiffs’ respective agreements to individually arbitrate any dispute with Defendants,” Dish lawyers wrote the judge Monday. Dish asked that the plaintiffs “consent to a stay of this action pending the outcome of individual arbitrations under the agreements, and to the dismissal of the putative class action allegations in the Complaint,” said the lawyers. Dish failed to “properly pay” its New York installers their biweekly wages within seven calendar days after the end of the week in which these wages were earned, and took “unlawful deductions” from their paychecks, alleged an Oct. 7 class action. Installers Chris Calderon, Nick Patsonikolis and Amresh Boodoo also allege Dish wrongfully terminated them in September in retaliation for their safety complaints. A “large percentage” of the vans Dish provided its installers for work were “unsafe,” said the complaint. Many of the vans had issues with torn windshield wipers and broken side mirrors, plus tires with low tread and low coolant, causing vans to overheat and break down in the field, it said. Dish didn’t comment Monday.