Musings from an overworked translator

BDÜ call to action – why can’t the ATA act like this on our behalf???? August 10, 2023

I don’t know about you, but I am getting sick of the ATA just lying down and taking it when it comes to machine translation and post-editing. They should have been fighting this for years – not embracing or accepting it. I have spent 25 years watching the translation industry change for the worse, and I am sick of it. I am tired of having to fight this on my own at the individual level. We should have never had to! My former best client is now using MTPE on jobs that used to earn me thousands of dollars. They are paying $50-100 instead – and probably not earning much more than that themselves. The base word rates haven’t changed in 25 years and now they are whittling away at them again. Calculate the rates in terms of hourly rates, and you’ll see that it now often pays better to clean houses than to translate. That’s b.s. In a few years I hope the industry enjoys not having any competent translators left who have any self-respect once all this “technology” shows its true colors and the players stop gobbling each other up. I for one am looking at leaving and switching careers to another track altogether.

From the July newsletter of BDÜ (translation below):

Zunehmender Preisdruck durch „kreative“ Abrechnungsmethoden

Mit wachsender Sorge und Missfallen beobachtet der BDÜ neue und „kreative“ Abrechnungsmethoden seitens Agenturkunden, mit denen diese versuchen, alle Vorteile der Nutzung sämtlicher verfügbarer Übersetzungstools (inklusive CAT und NMÜ) für sich zu beanspruchen. Nach der – einseitigen – Veränderung der Wortgewichtungen zu Ungunsten der Übersetzer oder auch Einbeziehung von internen Fuzzy Matches in diese Abrechnung taucht nun eine sogenannte „dynamische Abrechnung“ auf, bei der MTPE-Jobs (Machine Translation Post Editing) zwar im Vorfeld mit einem bestimmten Volumen beauftragt werden, die finale Honorarhöhe jedoch erst nachträglich nach der Anzahl der tatsächlich bearbeiteten Wörter ermittelt wird. Auf diese Weise werden Honorare nicht nur für Übersetzer unkalkulierbar, sondern völlig unauskömmlich, sofern die gleichen Wort-Tarife angesetzt werden wie für herkömmliches MTPE.

Der BDÜ lässt derzeit die Rechtmäßigkeit solcher nachträglichen Absenkungen juristisch überprüfen und bringt die Problematik auch auf europäischer Ebene bei FIT Europe (Regionalzentrum des Weltdachverbands Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs) für eine mögliches gemeinsames Vorgehen ein. Alle, denen ähnliches Gebaren seitens Agenturkunden begegnet, sind aufgerufen, entsprechende Beispiele als Grundlage für weitergehende Aktionen an den BDÜ-Bundesvorstand zu kommunizieren (bundesvorstand@bdue.de).

Translation:

Increasing pressure on prices due to “creative” billing methods

The BDÜ has been observing with growing concern and displeasure the new and “creative” billing methods on the part of agency clients, with which they are trying to claim all of the benefits of using all of the available translation tools (including computer-assisted tools (CAT) and machine translation post-editing (MTPE) for themselves. After the – unilateral – change in word weightings to the disadvantage of the translators or also the inclusion of internal fuzzy matches in this accounting, they are now introducing a so-called “dynamic accounting” in which MTPE jobs are ordered in advance with a certain volume, but they then determine the final fee amount afterwards based on the number of words that were actually edited. In this way, fees become not only incalculable for translators, but also completely unaffordable if the same word rates are applied as for conventional MTPE.

The BDÜ is currently looking into the legality of these retroactive reductions and is also raising the issue at European level with FIT Europe (the European branch of the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs) for possible joint action. The BDÜ is calling on anyone who encounters similar behavior from their agency clients to communicate any examples of this to the Federal Executive Board of BDÜ as a basis for further action. (bundesvorstand@bdue.de).