Tag: news
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Public services rendered
Fardous Bahbouh investigates the progress – or lack of it – towards equitable pay for public service interpreting. This article was first published by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) Consider this. The UK language services market is currently worth around £2.2 billion. Some translation companies have self-reported gross margins of up to 77…
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What Is the Real Cost of Outsourcing? My Letter to the House of Lords Public Services Committee
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Dear Baroness Morris, I am truly grateful to you and the members of the Public Services Committee for your recent report on interpreting services in the courts. Your inquiry came at a critical time for justice—for…
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Equitable Distribution of Risks, Responsibilities and Rewards Could Be the Solution to Public Service Interpreting
In a recent article, economist Mariana Mazzucato argues that achieving good economic growth in the UK requires getting public-private partnerships right by ensuring fair sharing of both risks and rewards. Mazzucato highlights the historical problem in the UK, where public-private partnerships often lead to the state overpaying while the private sector underperforms. The same issue…
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Labour Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services Insist on Allowing ‘the Market’ to determine Interpreters Fees, Ignoring Evidence from the House of Lords Inquiry
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry The Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services, Sarah Sackman, spoke at the House of Lords on Wednesday. Instead of acknowledging the inquiry’s published evidence, the minister shamelessly reiterated false statements based on clearly flawed…
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Before Setting New Year’s Resolutions: Beware the Trap of CPD for Precarious Workers (AKA Freelancers)
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry As the festive season approaches, a time meant to be joyful can often feel like a storm of financial stress, social anxiety, and forced cheerfulness. For freelancers, especially those in exploitive sectors like the outsourced public…
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Professionalism vs Indentured Labour
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry I just had a difficult conversation with the gentleman who cleans our windows. He was quite unreasonable, but I managed to stay firm and calm. Usually, he cleans windows for several buildings on our street in…
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4 Ethical Reasons Why the UK Should Not ‘Import’ Court Interpreters from Abroad
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry In a recent session of the House of Lords inquiry into court interpreting, the Association of Translation Companies (ATC) lamented their inability to “import” interpreters from abroad when local professionals refused to accept shockingly low pay…
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Outsourced Then Screwed
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry The United Nations reported that, despite being the world’s fifth-largest economy, one-fifth of the UK’s population—14 million people—lived in poverty, with 1.5 million experiencing destitution in 2018. Fast forward to 2024, and while the UK remains…
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Who regulates NRPSI? And why interpreters should NOT be required to fund its Publications.
The National Register for Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) keeps insisting that its role is to protect the public. I question this claim. Established in 1994, NRPSI was intended as a step towards regulating public service interpreting. However, there is little evidence that this legacy organisation has updated its approach in response to the outsourcing of…
