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11-17-2009, 12:46 AM
Satellite : Some Dish Network call center jobs headed to New Jersey
Monday, November 16, 2009
By Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dish Network, which announced last week plans to close a 600-person call center in McKeesport in March, has informed the state Department of Labor and Industry that 37 employees at the call center will lose their jobs Jan. 8.
The company sent a letter to the state and to McKeesport Mayor James Brewster Nov. 9 to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
In a letter addressed to employees, the satellite television company said it planned to move those 37 positions to another call center location in Pine Brook, N.J. The letter said the company was analyzing the best ways to run a more efficient operation.
"Through this analysis, it has been determined that based on growth considerations in the McKeesport Dispatch location, we can relocate dispatch job responsibilities to obtain the optimum effectiveness," the letter said.
The company encouraged employees to apply for other jobs with Dish, but did not guarantee them a position within the company.
Dish has struggled in recent years to gain new subscribers as market saturation increases and it competes with cable providers like Comcast. It's also been hit hard by a lengthy court battle with TiVo, who is alleging the company's digital video recorder technology violates a TiVo patent.
The company's announcement last week that it would shutter its call center in McKeesport means the city, already saddled with a 10.3 percent employment rate, will lose one of its top five employers. The company occupies a space in the Industrial Center of McKeesport and employs more than three-quarters of the people that work there.
Monday, November 16, 2009
By Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dish Network, which announced last week plans to close a 600-person call center in McKeesport in March, has informed the state Department of Labor and Industry that 37 employees at the call center will lose their jobs Jan. 8.
The company sent a letter to the state and to McKeesport Mayor James Brewster Nov. 9 to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
In a letter addressed to employees, the satellite television company said it planned to move those 37 positions to another call center location in Pine Brook, N.J. The letter said the company was analyzing the best ways to run a more efficient operation.
"Through this analysis, it has been determined that based on growth considerations in the McKeesport Dispatch location, we can relocate dispatch job responsibilities to obtain the optimum effectiveness," the letter said.
The company encouraged employees to apply for other jobs with Dish, but did not guarantee them a position within the company.
Dish has struggled in recent years to gain new subscribers as market saturation increases and it competes with cable providers like Comcast. It's also been hit hard by a lengthy court battle with TiVo, who is alleging the company's digital video recorder technology violates a TiVo patent.
The company's announcement last week that it would shutter its call center in McKeesport means the city, already saddled with a 10.3 percent employment rate, will lose one of its top five employers. The company occupies a space in the Industrial Center of McKeesport and employs more than three-quarters of the people that work there.