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MoJ ditches new court interpreting system in face of major backlash

As a professional and registered interpreter in three foreign languages, I have been really upset about the whole situation regarding ALS. Firstly, the MoJ had a complete disregard for the integrity of my profession where is in my opinion an interpreter (if required in a trial/police interview) is as important as a barrister / prosecutor. However, MoJ just wanted to save the money and they thought the interpreters do not deserve a skilled Job's pay. An interpreter still earns less than many skilled self-employed people. Also, the hourly pay for interpreters is still the same since 2007. So instead of making it better, they tried to make it worse. Secondly, ALS thought that they can use their bullying tactics and force us into accepting their conditions. Well I am afraid it does not work like that in today's world. I will not work for ALS at any cost and will only resume work with the same passion and honor for the MoJ, police forces and my profession as before once the MoJ scraps the whole idea of outsourcing the interpreter service to ALS, which in my view would be a very sensible thing after the harsh experience of having to deal with non-qualified and non-security cleared interpreters (if one bothered to turn up) delays, waste of public funds and waste of important time for the relevant people. I think it would be wise to reinstate the National Agreement for interpreters pay, make the National Register of Public Service Interpreters as the regulatory body and bring things back to normal.

26-Feb-2012

8:05 pm