ALS offers cash to beat interpreting boycott
The company running the controversial new courtroom interpreting service is offering cash incentives to interpreters who recruit friends, the Gazette has learned, as it emerged than nine out of 10 court interpreters are boycotting the service.
An online poll of 1,206 interpreters surveyed by campaign group Interpreters for Justice (IFJ) revealed that 90% are refusing to work for Applied Language Solutions (ALS), which was awarded the contract to provide interpreters to criminal justice agencies.
The group, set up to campaign for the contract to be cancelled, said interpreters have not signed up with ALS because of concerns about the standard of the assessment process used by the contractor.
Since the new arrangement began on 1 February, solicitors, interpreters and courts have reported problems, resulting in adjourned or cancelled hearings.
Ipswich criminal solicitor Andrew Cleal told the Gazette that a clerk at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court was last week forced to resort to Google Translate to communicate in Lithuanian details of a defendant’s next hearing.
A solicitor at the City of London Magistrates’ Court told the Gazette he was awarded a payment out of central funds for three hours’ travel and waiting time due to the non-attendance of a Romanian interpreter.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said this week there had been a ‘marked improvement’ in the service following an ‘unacceptable’ number of problems in the first weeks.
But an email sent by ALS chief executive Gavin Wheeldon to colleagues, seen by the Gazette, suggested that 65% of courts may have been affected. The email said ‘35% of all courts have not missed a single booking’. Wheeldon said that ALS is receiving 20-30 applications a day from interpreters looking to sign up with the company. To encourage new sign-ups, he said ALS is offering interpreters £250 if they recruit a friend.
Comments
Getting more desperate
So, if 20-30 people are applying everyday, why on earth offer £250 to recruit a friend? Doesn't add up.. like this whole contract.
ALS
We made to believe that the whole exercise of awarding the provision of the interpreting services to a single company was to make savings. After 2 weeks of chaos in courts and tribunals around the country we were offered a explanation that the problems were mere "teething" ones and they were expected. Now after 5 weeks since implementation of the Agreement we offered no explanation at all as to:
1. Why the details (very often dated and incorrect ones) of many registered interpreters is on ALS list of interpreters registered with them without any consent or? in fact? knowledge of interpreters in question?
2. Why all the instances of gross professional misconduct of ALS interpreters are not investigated and openly discussed?
3. Why the total loss (no savings!) sustained by Justice System since the implementation of the FWA is not discussed, published or dealt with?
4. Who will be taken responsible for the total destruction of the reputable and time-tested system of provision of the interpreters for the justice system institutions in England and Wales, National Registry of Public Service Interpreters and, in fact, the whole profession?
Feedback from Legal Profession
Solicitors, barristers, magistrates, judges, court listings officers etc. You can complete this online survey and log your complaints r.e ALS...
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/interpretersforjustice
This survey is aimed at the legal profession, the results of which will no doubt demonstrate the sheer scale of this issue. We need figures.. hearings adjourned, court time lost, time in remand etc etc. The survey will remain live until mid next week.
Murder or Manslaughter?
On 05/03/12 a colleague attended a plea and case management hearing at Birmingham Crown Court for a murder case. The hearing had been adjourned by a week due to lack of an interpreter. ALS sent an interpreter who, as far as I know, has no DPSI therefore is not on the NRPSI.
When the defendant was asked how he pleaded to the indictment of murder, the interpreter interpreted it as manslaughter!!! My colleague wrote a note to the Judge about the serious misinterpretation to which the Judge said that it was not the right protocol and returned the note to the usher. My colleague passed it on to the defence barrister and that was the last of that. Later that day the ALS interpreter managed to find my colleague's phone number on the website and sent her a few threatening texts warning her that she would get in touch with solicitors and sue her for slander!!
http://www.linguistlounge.org/index.php/140-murder-or-manslaughter
Jajo the Rabbit 'hired' as translator at Birmingham courts
AN INTERPRETER has told how she registered her pet, Jajo the Rabbit, as a translator with a controversial Ministry of Justice-backed agency.
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2012/03/09/jajo-the-r...