After years of applying pressure for solutions to the health and safety issue for its interpreter members, CAPE is now ratcheting up its efforts to a new level.
CAPE promised stronger action after the recent collective agreement was unable to help address the challenges, which have been ongoing since Parliament moved to remote and hybrid meetings at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-functional CAPE working group has been struck and met last week to help find long-overdue resolutions for this crucial matter.
Complicated issue
Poor practices and a lack of proper technical infrastructure have caused many interpreters – CAPE TR members and also freelance interpreters – to be injured on the job, with a record number of incidents reported weekly. Meetings with remote or hybrid set-ups present issues with technology, sound quality, and audio compression, resulting in sound that is insufficient to allow interpreters to do their job, or of such poor quality that it damages their eardrum and causes impairment, immediately or over regular exposure.
Bilingual Parliament at risk due to dwindling numbers of available interpreters
There are currently only about 60 staff interpreters and this small, niche group of accredited experts in simultaneous interpretation is dwindling every week. Injuries sustained from hybrid and remote meetings mean that many are on reduced hours, sick leave, have been assigned to other duties, or have left the profession entirely.
The crucial role that interpreters play in supporting Canada’s democratic institutions and ensuring all information is available in both official languages is at grave risk. Already, many Parliamentary committee meetings have been interrupted or postponed when there are not enough interpreters available to assist in live interpretation.
This is not a career path that many join every year – and as these committee meetings increasingly gain a reputation for the risk of injury, fewer people will choose the profession or choose to work in these dangerous environments.
Responsibility
The fundamental fact is that the employer, the Treasury Board, is legally required to protect the health and safety of its employees. The Translation Bureau, on behalf of the Treasury Board, and parliamentary affairs have so far failed to do that, as found by the Labour Program after interpreters filed complaints in 2022. Now, rather than pause hybrid and remote meetings until solutions can be found, Parliament instead has gone ahead and made hybrid sittings permanent, dismissing not just the wellbeing of its employees, but also its responsibilities under the Official Languages Act.
Dedicated working group
While CAPE and interpreters have been working on this issue since the very beginning, the constant runaround and delays in implementing solutions – and utter disregard for the health and safety of interpreters from the Translation Bureau and others – have resulted in no concrete actions to stem the barrage of injuries being sustained.
This new working group brings together the expertise and dedication needed to tackle this critical issue both urgently and forcefully. Comprised of CAPE leadership and staff from research, negotiations, legal, communications and advocacy, as well as interpreter members, the group’s initial meeting set the stage for information-sharing and problem-solving as they set out to find solutions to safeguard interpreters' health and safety before it’s too late.
Not backing down
Interpreters’ work is essential for all Canadians to be able to access and understand the work of government and our democratic institutions and CAPE will not rest until its members have a safe working environment to perform at the highest level.
