Pages in topic: < [1 2] | When to sue a subcontract interpreter? Thread poster: Arianna Aguilar
| Lingua 5B Bosnia and Herzegovina Local time: 09:24 Member (2009) English to Croatian + ... That, and... | Feb 22, 2009 |
Kati Bumbera wrote:
...also what action is to be taken agains the person who doesn't show up.
Generally I have to give at least 24 hours notice if I can't do a job as this gives the agency enough time to find somebody else. They monitor cancellations and sanction no-shows without notice. I think the worst they can do is kick you out of their database for good (obviously no references either) but maybe in the USA it's more common to sue, I don't know. My point is, have a system in place and tell your interpreters what the proper way is to cancel an appointment and what the consequences are if they fail to adhere to it.
It goes without saying that the person who didn't show up must be punished, this way or another.
24 sometimes isn't enough. A person can get injured, for example, accidentally and unexpectedly. ( much shorter notice than 24 hrs). If you have just one surgeon in the hospital, in one shift, the other one is certainly on stand-by, by the phone.... There are professional procedures, and semi-professional procedures, nothing new. | | | ElleC United States Local time: 02:24 English to Spanish + ... Not sure you can recoup the cost... | Feb 22, 2009 |
I'm not giving legal advice, but from what you've said, it doesn't appear that you can sue to recoup your lost costs. You don't mention that being part of the contract and there was no prior agreement to do so in your conversations. This may just have to be a loss for you, but certainly terminate the employee's contract. | | | Sara Senft United States Local time: 03:24 Spanish to English + ... You are right | Feb 22, 2009 |
You are right. My reply showed up before you posted with some more details.
Arianna Aguilar wrote:
Emergencies happen to the best of us, and of course, I would never pursue something in a case like that. But lying isn't an emergency... | | | Incompetent Agency | Feb 23, 2009 |
Its a bit odd this thread as it is quite obvious that it is the agency that is incompetent here. There are hundreds of interpreters and translators who never miss appointments or send in work late. Why are you not employing them? How do you vet your outsourcers? Why do you not have a replacement interpreter ready to take over? You seem to be fuming about loosing $300. Your client may have lost a lot more: even an important contract so perhaps you should be reviewing how you run your agency rath... See more Its a bit odd this thread as it is quite obvious that it is the agency that is incompetent here. There are hundreds of interpreters and translators who never miss appointments or send in work late. Why are you not employing them? How do you vet your outsourcers? Why do you not have a replacement interpreter ready to take over? You seem to be fuming about loosing $300. Your client may have lost a lot more: even an important contract so perhaps you should be reviewing how you run your agency rather than how to get some money back. ▲ Collapse | |
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Kati Bumbera France Local time: 09:24 Hungarian to English + ... another simple question to ask | Feb 23, 2009 |
Maybe incompetent is too harsh a word. She said she does have good interpreters on staff and this person came with good references and skills too so the agency had no reason not to employ her.
Which leads me to this - do you value your (good) interpreters? Out of interest, how much of that $300 you lost would have been her fees had she done an excellent job? (Don't answer here, I'm not asking becuase I want to know the figure.)
I have agencies I only work for when I hav... See more Maybe incompetent is too harsh a word. She said she does have good interpreters on staff and this person came with good references and skills too so the agency had no reason not to employ her.
Which leads me to this - do you value your (good) interpreters? Out of interest, how much of that $300 you lost would have been her fees had she done an excellent job? (Don't answer here, I'm not asking becuase I want to know the figure.)
I have agencies I only work for when I have nothing better to do. They generally give very short assignments for fees that would make you weep. Yet I honour my commitments to them, arrive on time and carry out the job to the best of my abilities. But I sometimes wonder what would happen if I was offered a full-day, well-paid assignment for the same day. I have to say I'd probably cancel on the small job too - in a professional way, accepting the consequences and without a word of complaint, nevertheless I would cancel. (Incidentally, this agency complains a lot about cancellations - like I said I've never cancelled a job before but quite frankly I'm not surprised that they have this problem.)
So I think another question that is worth asking is this - do your staff work for you only when they don't have a better job to do? A lot of agencies operate on this business model so I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of if this is the case, but you have to adapt your policies and procedures to this (for example by having a standby person). If that's not how you operate then maybe you just made one mistake with this one person, but if cancellations like this happen frequently I think it may be a good idea to think about what's behind them. ▲ Collapse | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » When to sue a subcontract interpreter? Trados Studio 2022 Freelance |
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