Tag: technology
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The Government Has Admitted the Current Framework “Does Not Prevent Worker Exploitation and Leaves Vulnerable Workers without Core Employment Protections.”
I received a ministerial reply from the Cabinet Office in response to concerns I raised about public supply chains, outsourcing, equality obligations, and precarious labour arrangements affecting interpreters and other workers in publicly funded services. A copy of the correspondence is included at the end of this article. The response was issued following my open…
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Theory of Change for the UK Translation and Interpreting Industry: Repoliticising Labour Precarity and Mapping Responsibility
Abstract This article proposes a theory of change for understanding and addressing persistent low pay and precarity in the translation and interpreting industry through the repoliticisation of translation labour. Building on my previous analyses of translators’ labour conditions, it argues that low pay is structurally produced through the organisation of the translation supply chain. Translation…
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Should Translators Pay to Play “Happy Community” with LSPs While Exploitation and Precarity Go Unaddressed? Urgent Changes Needed to ITI’s Conference
I am writing ahead of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) conference because I believe meaningful change is still possible. My aim is not only to critique ITI, but to contribute to a discussion about what translators and interpreters urgently need from professional institutions at a time of intensifying precarity and labour insecurity, as…
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What hope is there for translators when their intensifying financial insecurity is often depoliticised, even in The Guardian’s coverage?
I read with interest the Guardian’s recent article on AI and translation labour titled “‘Being human helps’: despite rise of AI is there still hope for Europe’s translators?” While I am grateful for an article that acknowledges worsening precarity, declining rates, and reduced workflows, I believe it still reproduces a depoliticised and problematic framing, presenting…
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Are translators really lacking entrepreneurship skills? What is the problem represented to be?
When we read reports about the profession, whether in academic studies or professional association publications, there are often lists of entrepreneurship skills translators supposedly need to acquire: better negotiation, improved business strategy, more active marketing, or greater adaptability in a changing market. But there is a useful question we should ask whenever we encounter this…
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Is the “Real Value” of ITI Membership Actually Negative? Professionalisation, Risk Transfer, and How Translation Labour Could Be Repoliticised
Like many questions that challenge established assumptions, I am aware this may be an uncomfortable one to ask. My aim in raising it is knowledge creation through a political economy analysis of membership organisations and translators’ labour. This article examines how institutional narratives, incentive structures, and representational arrangements shape what is made visible or invisible…
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Academic Research Documents Poor Job Quality and Intensifying Financial Insecurities Among UK Translators (Albeit with Theoretical and Analytical Weaknesses)
A recent academic study titled “Love’s Labour’s Found? A Data-Driven Exploration of Job Quality among UK-Based Freelance Translators” by JC Penet, Callum Walker and Joseph Lambert offers one of the clearest empirical snapshots to date of the deteriorating working conditions facing freelance translators in the UK. Many of the findings strongly resonate with my own…
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Why Translators and Interpreters Are Often Poorly Paid: Corporate Power and Displaced Responsibility
One of the most striking observations from my three years of PhD research into the translation and interpreting industry is how little attention is paid to a basic question: why are translators and interpreters so often underpaid, and who is responsible? Across professional events, academic discussions, and institutional collaborations, these questions remain largely unaddressed. When…
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This upcoming election, make ending exploitation within outsourced public services a top priority
As the UK prepares for the upcoming elections, an issue that deserves far greater public attention is the risk of exploitation within outsourced public service supply chains. Voters in Scotland and Wales will elect representatives to their national parliaments, while a number of local council and mayoral polls will take place in England. Across these…
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From Booking Apps to AI: Why Technological Change Is Intensifying Precarity in Outsourced Public Service Interpreting
In the previous parts of this series, I share insights from my PhD research at the University of Leeds on inequalities in the outsourced public service interpreting. In their responses to a national survey, interpreters described significant challenges affecting working conditions, pay, and professional stability in UK Public Service Interpreting (PSI). Survey findings highlighted widespread…
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Working conditions in outsourced public service interpreting: meaningful work under market pressures
This third article in the series presents further findings from my PhD research at the University of Leeds on inequalities in outsourced public service interpreting (PSI) in the United Kingdom (UK). PSI is a state-mandated function grounded in legal obligations and funded through public resources. However, the delivery of these services is largely outsourced to…
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Spotting Ethical-Washing in the Translation Industry: Lessons from Greenwashing
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Greenwashing is a well-established concept in environmental and corporate debates. It describes situations in which companies market themselves as ethically or environmentally responsible while their actual practices fall short. Classic examples include Volkswagen’s “clean diesel” scandal…
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Good Translation Jobs Require Good Translation Companies: Why This Simple Logic Is Often Obscured — and Why Universities Must Remain Independent
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Seriously, what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “Better Together”? No, not the love song by Jack Johnson.Not the campaign for keeping Scotland in the UK.Not the UK’s debates to stay in the…
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We Need a Fair Translation Industry — Not Complicit Collaboration nor “Adaptability” to Exploitation
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry The translation and interpreting industry, and some academics, keep talking about adaptability, flexibility, and collaboration. But these buzzwords often mask a deeper problem: exploitation. What we need is fairness, not compliance to algorithms or precarious systems.…
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Confronting Critical Blind Spots in Sustainability Discourse in Translation Studies: Advancing Ethical Labour Practices and Critiquing Profit-Driven Models
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Introduction: Sustainability has become a widely endorsed and positively charged concept across translation industry studies, professional discourse, and policy debates. Yet closer examination reveals a paradox: while sustainability is frequently invoked, it is often operationalised through…
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The Problem with Challenging Structural Problems: Confronting multiple Stakeholders and Navigating Emotional and Professional Risks
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry As I approach the completion of my research on inequality and the almost non-existent labour rights in outsourced public service interpreting, I have reached a difficult but important realisation: researching systemic problems can be lonely, emotionally…
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Why Are Translators’ Rights Always Said to Be “Discussed Elsewhere”? Institutional Alignment with Commercial Interests as an Ethical and Strategic Failure
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Translators’ and interpreters’ labour rights are often framed as merely a matter of low rates and consistently displaced in collaborations with commercial interests under the pretext of being out of scope or better addressed “elsewhere,” in…
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Ethical Tensions and Power Asymmetries in Industry–Academic Collaboration: A Reflexive Account
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Industry–academic collaboration is often framed as mutually beneficial, offering impact, stakeholder engagement, and practical relevance. Yet such collaborations are rarely neutral exchanges of expertise. Drawing on my experience as a publicly funded doctoral researcher, awarded by…
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On the Ethical Risks of Translation Academics “Collaborating” with the Industry Without Adequate Critical Engagement and Objective Analysis
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry This critique reflects the author’s independent analysis and should not be understood as representing any institutional position. It is not connected to, commissioned by, or endorsed by the University at which the author is currently completing…
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Talent Pipelines or Precarity Pipelines? Setting the Narrative Straight on the UK Language Industry
By Fardous Bahbouh, Researcher & Consultant on Labour Rights, Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Translation Industry Like many, I was saddened to read about the closure of the Modern Languages department at Cardiff University. This represents a lost opportunity for global understanding, cross-cultural communication, economic development, and the continuous progress of humanity.…
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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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