25th January 2013
Interpreters join forces across Sussex as cuts hit
their income
Hundreds of official interpreters in Sussex are
mounting a campaign against cuts to hourly fees.
Some 400 people across the county who act as
translators for the NHS, councils and other public bodies have this week formed
the Association of Community Interpreting Standards, officially launched at
Eastbourne town hall.
The aim is to raise the profile of their work and
to highlight a crisis in their profession – the pressure to cut their hourly
pay rates, in some cases by almost half.
They say the pressure to reduce costs comes from
budget cuts in the public sector and increased competition between big translation
and interpreting companies.
Translator Ali Akbar, from Brighton, is one of the
founding members of the association.
He said: “We appreciate that councils and the NHS
are facing serious cuts – but as community interpreters we feel that we offer a
vital service to very vulnerable people.
“We do more than translate, we also help people to
make crucial decisions about their lives in a culture they’re not familiar
with.
Pay eroded
“It’s very depressing to see how our pay is being
eroded. Three years ago I could expect to earn between £26 and £30 an hour,
with travel expenses paid on top of that.
“Now I can be asked to do an hour’s interpreting
for as little as £16 an hour with no travel expenses.
“Once I’ve taken away time and money for travel I
can end up earning about £3 an hour.”
Other work carried out by community interpreters
can range from helping their client’s family to finding the right school or
translating clauses of a tenancy agreement.
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