Two months after August’s Leaders Forum and Capitol Hill visit, the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) has prepared the following Fall Awareness Campaign Kit for the members of the Association of Language Companies (ALC) to follow up with their representative offices on the matter of independent contracting. Download the kit.

The kit contains three items of interest:

1. One-pager, a background summary of the origins, current practices, and desired outcomes. This document is for your own information and for printing and distributing by hand.
2. Sample letter to congressional staffers. This document is for you to email to staffer/representatives’ offices.
3. Sample talking points to guide you when calling congressional offices. This document is for you to reference when speaking on the phone with staffers at representatives’ offices.

As the one-pager states, JNCL’s recommendation is that the government provide one clear path to compliance for businesses. The California legislature can accomplish this by updating its wage orders to clarify that “knowledge-based industries,” like the language industry, should be exempt from the narrowest of employee classifications.

California has the strictest interpretations of the ABC rule, which is why lawmakers should expand the “B factor” to include an “or” to allow workers to perform a similar function as the hiring company’s “usual course” of business if it is in a different location:

• Current “ABC” language: (B) The work they perform falls “outside the usual course” of the hiring company’s business;
• Recommended “ABC” language: (B) The work they perform is either: a) outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; or b) outside all the places of business of the entity.

Follow these steps if you do not have contact information for your representatives’ offices:

1. Determine who your representatives are: https://whoismyrepresentative.com/
2. When calling, use the Senate Directory and House Directory to find the offices’ phone numbers.
3. When writing an email, the directories above might not include direct email addresses. If this is the case, please contact JNCL (tcalvin@languagepolicy.org), and we will provide them to you.

Download the Campaign Kit

How the California Legal System Operates 

No one knows how the new ABC test incorporated within the Dynamex decision will be applied in any industry, let alone ours. One of the questions raised was, "How do you treat an independent contractor who works for multiple companies?" The current thinking is that work for multiple employers, though it was not directly addressed in the Dynamex decision, would not be perceived as a bar to reclassification. 

A second question: "Would the fact that an independent contractor worked only a few hours per month or per year preclude them from being reclassified as an employee?" The consensus answer was no. An independent contractor who would otherwise qualify as an employee—for a few hours or a few thousand hours—would be treated the same. 

A third question: "Would the department of labor and other agencies of the state government utilize the same test for classification?" The answer is that each state agency would be free to utilize its own evaluative procedure in reaching a judgment on whether or not an independent contractor should be reclassified as an employee.

These questions, and others, are expected to be decided at the administrative level or, ideally, in the California state legislature. Interestingly, the current legislature decided there was insufficient time this year to address these complex issues. This was seen as a euphemism for “too hot to handle in an election year.” While some saw this delay as a plus, it may actually prove to be a negative in the larger political context of California. 

State Politics

The ultimate fallout from the Dynamex decision will depend on the political environment. In 2019, the California State Legislature will likely be significantly more favorable to labor unions and, by extension, less favorable to business. 

Moreover, and perhaps more significantly, the new governor, who will likely be a Democrat, will undoubtedly be less conservative than the current Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, who has reached his term limit. The net result of this political change will be a state political environment that is not likely to provide broad protection from the Dynamex decision.

There is another wrinkle to the politics of the Dynamex decision. The decision, and others like it, will most likely wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court. My understanding is that the Dynamex decision will be appealed. In the context of the new composition of the court, it is likely that the Dynamex decision will be modified, if not overturned.

Another area of political uncertainty in 2019 and beyond is that there will be one or more proposals put on the California ballot to either enact or overturn the Dynamex decision. This may result in an amendment to the California State Constitution to protect the gig economy and put it out of reach of judicial decision. 

Lobby for Safe Harbor

ALC needs to organize a lobbying effort of its own to carve out a safe harbor for interpreting, translation, and related disciplines within the language services industry. We cannot rely on a business coalition to salvage our relatively small corner of the independent contractor market. 

There are now multiple states that are either judicially or legislatively following a similar pathway to reclassification of independent contractors. States mentioned in the meeting include, but are not limited to, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Reclassification is not a California-specific problem; it's an industry-wide problem. And, it is one that will not be solved by individual action. I respectfully suggest that ALC be reconstituted to allow for active lobbying, and that we all reach into our pockets to fund a national lobbying effort.

Victor Hertz is president of Accredited Language Services. He can be reached at vhertz@accreditedlanguage.com. Follow him on Twitter @VictoratALS.

With the end of California’s 2018 legislative session on August 31, action on Dynamex is expected to fizzle until next January. According to reports, leaders in the Senate and Assembly, Senate President Toni Atkins, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon have given no indication of their willingness to provide a clear path to compliance before the year’s end, leaving an estimated 2 million California workers—and countless business leaders—confused and agitated.

Politically, Dynamex plays well for pro-worker rights groups (i.e., Democrats who traditionally rely on Union votes) in the run up to election season. Democrats hold a supermajority in California, and they are looking to maintain power with this win. However, pro-business groups are highlighting the stories of independent contractors, which has thrown a wrench into a traditionally binary political feud. One of their indispensible data points is that 80% of nationally surveyed independent contractors prefer the flexibility afforded by working for themselves.

Coverage of the issue has been confined to California’s relatively strict interpretation of the ABC test. However, several other states with strong Democratic legislatures have considered updating their wage order to mirror California’s in 2018. We will continue to provide more updates as they occur.

To reiterate, JNCL’s recommendation is that the government provide one clear path to compliance for businesses. The California legislature can accomplish this by updating its wage orders to clarify that “knowledge-based industries” like the language industry should be exempt from the narrowest of employee classifications. California has the strictest interpretations of the ABC rule, which is why lawmakers should expand the “B factor” to include an “or” to allow workers to perform a similar function as the hiring company’s “usual course” of business if it is in a different location:

• Current “ABC” language: (B) The work they perform falls “outside the usual course” of the hiring company’s business
• Recommended “ABC” language: (B) The work they perform is either: a) outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; or b) outside all the places of business of the entity

In California, JNCL has reached out to the I’m Independent Coalition and the California Chamber of Commerce to see how we might work together to share our story. We are also reaching out to the Sacramento Bee to include the language industry in upcoming coverage. On Capitol Hill, we continue to meet and rely our message to key offices.

WASHINGTON, DC -- On Wednesday, leaders from the language service industry gathered on Capitol Hill to sound the alarm over new, “disruptive” employee classification regulations that threaten to upend the $45 billion-per-year industry’s business model.

Over 50 language industry professionals attended the Association of Language Companies’ (ALC) policy summit at the Center for Applied Linguistics to strategize an industry-wide response to the recent California Supreme Court ruling which narrowed the definition of who can be classified as an “independent contractor.” All agreed that specialist-industries like the language industry have reasons to be worried.

Read the full press release.

For ALC, and for the language industry, it’s time to get smart about employee classification. While we work in DC to push for a clear path to compliance, and for sensible regulations, especially in terms of the Unemployment Act and its implementation at the state level (which drives the vast majority of employee classification issues), ALC members should avail themselves of the resources on the ALC website, and should definitely plan on attending the ALC Washington Leaders’ Forum on August 8th at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., as well as the UnConference in Huntington Beach, January 17-19, and next year’s ALC Conference, May 1-4, also in Washington, D.C. JNCL-NCLIS is partnering with ALC in the Washington Leaders’ Forum, and will be partnering on advocacy events at both the UnConference and the Annual Conference. But there’s more - the UnConference allows you to network with other C-level leaders to learn and improve, and the Annual Conference has featured employee classification and labor law issues for the past several years. We owe ALC do-founder Bill Graeper a huge debt for raising this issue some 15 years ago, and staying on it for so long, but now is the time to get smart!

In more positive news, the Promoting Value Based Procurement Act of 2017 has been incorporated into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2019, in shortened form. The key provision reads:

(c) AVOIDANCE OF USE OF LOWEST PRICE TECHNICALLY ACCEPTABLE SOURCE SELECTION CRITERIA IN CERTAIN PROCUREMENTS.—To the maximum extent practicable, the use of lowest price technically acceptable source selection criteria shall be avoided in the case of a procurement that is predominately for the acquisition of—
(1) information technology services, cybersecurity services, systems engineering and technical assistance services, advanced electronic testing, audit or audit readiness services, or other knowledge-based professional services;

This applies to the whole Federal Government, and has been passed by the House of Representatives. Our next step will be to demonstrate to the Congress that what we do is indeed a “knowledge-based professional service,” and that work begins with you on August 8th!

Be part of ALC’s first Washington Leader Forum on August 8, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Held in partnership with the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), this Forum will convene leaders in the language industry to:

• Learn about federal policy and regulatory issues facing the industry—including employee classification and government contracting—and what is being done to address them.
  

• Meet with members of Congress and Executive Branch agencies with jurisdiction over issues of relevance.
  

• Network with fellow industry leaders to strategize solutions to shared concerns.

Watch this video to hear from ALC President Rick Antezana on the importance of your participation in this event.

For more information and logistics for this important forum, visit the event website.

Registration is limited to 50 participants. The deadline to register is Friday, July 27, at 5:00 pm ET.

Register Today!

ALC’s new president is Rick Antezana, partner, Dynamic Language. “It’s a huge honor to be part of the group setting the direction for a great association like the ALC over the next year,” Antezana said. 

“Having gotten to know the community since becoming a charter member 16 years ago, I am excited to team with this board to drive forward the initiatives we have planned. In particular, we’re looking for ways to bring more value to our members through educational programs that will help not only language company executives, but their staff members as well. We also want to establish deeper connections across the entire range of the industry, including with other organizations, vendors, and partners. Finally, we will be a leading force in helping to protect members of the entire U.S.-based language industry by helping to organize the effort to create clarity in the law and drive forward sensible legislation as it relates to Language Service Companies (LSCs) and Language Workers.”

The members of the 2018–2019 board of directors are as follows:

ABOUT ALC
The Association of Language Companies (ALC) is a national trade association representing businesses that provide translation, interpretation, localization, language testing, and language training services in the United States. ALC promotes the professional stature and economic position of the language service industry in the United States through industry advocacy and professional development.

One of the perennial challenges facing our industry is the uneven and capricious auditing of independent contractors. While we are making progress at the national level to reduce the incentives provided by the Department of Labor to pursue misclassification issues and to establish consistent guidelines for compliance under the Unemployment Act, state governments continue to look at employee classification. In California, where many ALC members have prevailed in their appeals of misclassification audits, a recent court ruling threatens all of our progress. We’ve just started monitoring this development.

In Washington, D.C., we’ve had very productive meetings with the Department of Labor on a wide range of issues, including the methodology of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and its prevailing wage determinations for our industry, the enforcement of the Service Contracting Act, and transitioning veterans into the language industry. We will provide updates as these initiatives move forward. We are still in the early days of the Trump administration, but as I said in Scottsdale, there’s a great deal of substantive support for the business world in D.C., and we will take every advantage of it.

Submitted by Bill Rivers, Ph.D., Executive Director Joint National Committee for Languages - National Council for Languages and International Studies

As spring slowly appears in the DC area—it was 35 °F the morning of April 10—we have a big development to report. Thanks to the tireless work of ALC's members who have attended Language Advocacy Days in 2017 and 2018, as well as the many companies that supported the work of the Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies through membership, contributions, and messages to Congress, we now have a robust bill in the House of Representatives; HR 3019, the “Promoting Value Based Procurement Act.” Sponsored by Representatives Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Don Beyer (D-VA), this bill would significantly restrict the federal government’s ability to use methods other than best value for the procurement of professional services. We’ve had success in the past two years with regard to the Congress requiring the Department of Defense to use Best Value procurement procedures for the acquisition of professional services; this bill would extend this to the entire government. Reverse auctions, lowest price technically acceptable, and other procurement approaches that we find wholly inappropriate would be banned under most circumstances. A special thanks goes to our Virginia delegates, including Barry Slaughter Olsen of Interpret America, Kathleen Diamond, and Giovanni Donatelli, for their engagement with Rep. Boyer’s office. The bill has passed the Government Affairs and Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives, and we are actively working with the offices of the Republican leadership to move this bill to the floor of the House.

We only have two weeks before ALC's Annual Conference in Scottsdale! I’m looking forward to talking with many of you at the conference as well as welcoming warmer climates!

With Best Wishes,

Bill Rivers

Respectfully submitted,
 
Victor Hertz
President
Accredited Language Services

Go ALC! It’s almost spring here in Washington, D.C., and as I write, we expect snow tonight. In other words, it’s time to think about ALC's Annual Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, in May!

As we continue to follow up from Language Advocacy Days 2018 last month, we continue to emphasize the need to reform contracting for language services, and to address the data collection methods of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We will update on these issues as new developments arise, but our message is positively received and well understood on Capitol Hill.

Unfortunately, the larger political dramas in Washington, D.C., have stalled the nomination of Cheryl Stanton as head of the Wage and Hour Division, and have limited the bandwidth of our colleagues on Capitol Hill. Once Ms. Stanton is in place, we will continue our efforts to develop a clear path to compliance on employee classification under the Unemployment Act.

With Best Wishes,

Bill Rivers

Another UNConference is officially “un-done,” and I’m glad I got the chance to meet with some of you to discuss the state of our industry. And for those I missed, I hope to see you in the future!

In related news, the ASTM ballot for the “foundation” standard for the language service industry has passed the second vote in the F-45 Committee. At this time, the standard is undergoing formal review by ASTM to ensure compliance with rules and procedures prior to official adoption. As this final stage is somewhat pro forma, it’s not too soon for us to consider next steps.

I would also like to once again offer my sincere thanks to everyone who participated in the voting process, and I hope you continue to support our efforts as we move forward.

I anticipate the next phase of the process will be to build on our foundation by adopting particular standards pertinent to specialized language services, including, but not limited to, Translation, Interpreting, Transcription, Voice-overs, Subtitles, Language Assessment, and Training.

Each of these service areas would benefit from a standard addressing the factors that make them unique.

To that end, I’d like to wrap up this month’s missive by conducting an informal survey to help focus our efforts going forward. I invite you to email me with responses to the following questions:

1. Which of these seven service areas are you most interested in? (Translation, Interpreting, Transcription, Voice Overs, Subtitles, Language Assessment, Training)
2. Are there other service areas that warrant their own standard? Please list them, along with a brief rationale for their inclusion.
3. Are you interested in contributing to the drafting committee(s)? If so, in which service area(s) do you have expertise?

Respectfully submitted,

Victor Hertz
President
Accredited Language Services

• Appropriations priorities for FY18 and FY19
• Legislation in the 115th Congress for language and culture
• The World Languages Advancement and Readiness Act (HR 1239 info sheet)
• Reauthorization of Title VI of the Higher Education Act (S. 2255 info sheet)
• LPTA and language services procurement

With regard to the issue of lowest-price technically acceptable bids on federal contracts for language services, our foundational message to Congress was, is, and ever will be that language services are fundamentally a professional service, not a commodity. Last week, our 125+ advocates, representing the language industry, K–12 education, higher education, and practitioners, took this message to Congress, pressing that language services be procured as professional services by the federal government through use of the tradeoff (i.e., best value) model. Reports from the meetings on Capitol Hill were uniformly positive—this issue resonates on the Hill. The National Language Council will continue raising this issue with the General Services Administration and Congress as we push to extend the requirement to use the tradeoff model beyond the Department of Defense.

Of course, we continue to work on employee classification, fair audits of the Service Contracting Act, and the errant methodology of the Bureau of Labor Statistics—key issues in federal contracting and regulation that impinge on our industry. The work done this week by our delegates in talking about our industry and its importance to national security, economic growth, and social justice—and in linking the “work” side of language to the “learn” side—bolsters our case and strengthens the relations our industry needs on Capitol Hill. So, a huge thank you to all who participated last week!

With Best Wishes,

Bill Rivers

• Inaccuracies in Prevailing Wages Rate Determinations for Translators and Interpreters
• Machine Translation vs. Human Translation
• Language Services Procurement: The Need for the Best Value Approach

As always, let us know what issues you face and how we might help!

Bill Rivers
Executive Director, JNCL-NCLIS

Read the letter.

• Inaccuracies in Prevailing Wages Rate Determinations for Translators and Interpreters
• Machine Translation vs. Human Translation
• Language Services Procurement: The Need for the Best Value Approach

As always, let us know what issues you face, and how we might help!

With Best Wishes,

Bill Rivers
 

William P. Rivers, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Joint National Committee for Languages – National Council for Language and International Studies

• Inaccuracies in Prevailing Wages Rate Determinations for Translators and Interpreters
  
• Machine Translation vs. Human Translation
  
• Language Services Procurement: The Need for the Best Value Approach

With regard to federal contracting, we are supporting efforts to restrict the Department of Defense's use of lowest-price, technically acceptable, and reverse auctions in the procurement of professional services, including language services. A section was added to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act to that effect (read about it here), and it will be strengthened in 2018.

On the employee classification front, we still await Senate confirmation of Cheryl Stanton as the director of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Our collective state-level messaging and the hard grassroots work being done by a great many ALC member companies across the country will feed into this effort.

Finally, as always, we welcome your ideas and feedback. I look forward to seeing you at the UNConference in Amelia Island!

With Best Wishes,

Bill Rivers
Executive Director, JNCL-NCLIS

As Labor Day approaches here in the United States, our labors in bringing professional standards to our industry are still not complete. After considerable time and effort, it is the conclusion of the ASTM drafting committee that the Standard for companies will be slightly revised and will again be going to ballot after this Monday’s holiday.

As the ASTM editorial board has not accepted the changes that we previously attempted to make as acceptable within the parameters of a second ballot, we must return to a first-ballot standard. This means, in effect, that we require a 90% vote in favor or abstaining in order to pass the Standard to the next stage. Although the changes that we’ve instituted are relatively small, they do satisfy the concerns of a number of key players in the process, and in my personal opinion do represent improvements in the language of the document. I would urge you to respond positively to the upcoming ballot if you are a voting member of the ASTM. Proximate to the date when this ballot is launched I will, as a matter of courtesy, ask ALC to send an alert to each of you as a further reminder.

Meanwhile, wishing all our colleagues in Texas and Louisiana a speedy recovery from the catastrophic flooding that has inundated that part of the country, and hoping that everyone has a festive and safe Labor Day holiday.

Regards,

Victor Hertz

President

Accredited Language Services

We’ve reached the dog days of August, and as temperatures rise, we are slowly moving toward a critical decision in the balloting of the new standard for Language Service Companies.

As previously noted, we hit a snag when the editorial watchdogs of ASTM deemed one of our edits to be a substantive change in content. When drafting the change (which was included to secure an affirmative vote from one of the voting members), we had considered it a minor clarification in terminology.

However, ASTM’s determination meant that we had two choices: 1) abandon the change, risking the loss of a crucial affirmative vote, or 2) incorporate the change, even though that would require that the entire standard be re-balloted. This, in turn, prompted a discussion of whether the requested change was critical to the standard, or if the document could be agreed to as written.

So at this time, we are wrestling with whether or not to return to a full ballot of the standard before the F-43 committee, which would require a 90% affirmative vote. Alternatively, it's possible that the holdout vote could be persuaded to vote in the affirmative and allow us to move to the second (and hopefully final) round of voting. If this is the case, we would be seeking the approval of two-thirds of the committee members to find any remaining objections to be non-persuasive.

I was hoping at the time of this writing that I could give you definitive word as to whether we’d be voting at the 90% level or the two-thirds level. As it currently stands, the jury is still out. Whichever way the decision goes, I will be calling upon you in the next few weeks to vote in favor of professionalizing and standardizing our industry at the company level.

If a vote is scheduled prior to my next post, I will ask the ALC to send an emergency blast to all members to alert you to the need for your participation in the voting process.

So, my friends, I close with an optimistic note of “stay tuned and hope for the best.”

Respectfully submitted,

Victor Hertz
President
Accredited Language Services
15 Maiden Lane (Suite 300)
New York, NY 10038-4011
p. 212-766-4111
f.  212-349-0964
vhertz@accreditedlanguage.com

As Independence Day has come and gone this summer, we have much to celebrate, both individually and collectively in our industry. That said, we still face an uphill battle in creating professional standards for Language Service Companies (LSCs) which will safeguard our future.

As I write this report, we have achieved the required number of affirmative votes to move to the next stage in adopting the ASTM standard for LSCs. However, we have now hit a new snag, which may derail the process and force us to re-ballot the standard.

In particular, the ASTM editorial committee has raised objections to some of the modifications made to the standard. These changes were undertaken to clarify certain points and reassure the voting members that the standard would satisfy their needs. Unfortunately, in some cases the adjustments were flagged as potentially substantial changes (as contrasted with changes that are editorial in nature).

It's incumbent upon me to inform the ALC membership that if those determinations stand, it may be necessary to re-ballot the standard in upcoming weeks/months. If so, you can rest assured that I will alert you to that necessity. With that said, I remain hopeful that this latest barrier to adoption will be remedied in short order, without the need to return to the previous balloting stage.

Meanwhile, I urge you to be patient as the standard wends its way through the consensus process within the ASTM.

In other news, I invite any and all ALC members to notify me of other initiatives that impact LSCs, whether they take place here in the US or abroad. I will also take this opportunity to mention a blog post that I've published on the evolving scope of our foundation standard and what that means for you and the industry.

Respectfully submitted,

Victor Hertz
President
Accredited Language Services
15 Maiden Lane (Suite 300)
New York, NY 10038-4011
p. 212-766-4111
vhertz@accreditedlanguage.com

The Labor Department announced Wednesday that it was rolling back an Obama administration rule that expanded the "joint employer" doctrine, the conditions for when one business can be held liable for employment and civil rights law violations at another company.

The move marks a win for business groups, which had staunchly opposed the Obama rule.

Read more ...

By the Los Angeles Times

The company tapped by the federal government to provide interpreters in immigration court wrongly classified employees as independent contractors and fired those who spoke out, the National Labor Relations Board said in a complaint issued Wednesday.

The complaint alleges that SOS International, also known as SOSi, misclassified workers and engaged in unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act, including coercion and retaliation. By misclassifying workers, SOSi circumvented labor laws that would require it to pay overtime and to provide certain benefits, such as workers’ compensation.

Read more.

1. Nearly 80% of professional linguists perform work under an independent contractor arrangement.
   
2. Nearly 90% of professional linguists feel it is important that they have the option to work as an independent contractor.
   
3. Over 90% of professional linguists had more than one client during 2016.
   
4. Freedom to choose assignments, a flexible schedule and freedom to set prices were the top benefits cited by professional linguists for being an independent small business person.
   

As one respondent noted:

“There is no reason for interpreters or translators to be treated as employees unless they decide to work for one client or one agency only and enter into an employment relationship. We are professionals who should have complete control over our own business.”

View the complete study report.

Download a printable PDF of the study report.

I want to express my sincere pleasure in having met so many of you in Sonoma at the recent UNConference. As my maiden missive on the subject of industry standards, let me focus on the work currently proceeding in the ASTM.

What Is the ASTM?
For those who aren’t familiar with the ASTM, it's essentially a standards-setting body in the United States that acts (among other things) as a feeder organization to the ISO. The ASTM helps coordinate efforts to codify standards, both in manufacturing and service industries, in the U.S. and around the world.

The F43 committee, of which I have been a member for more than six years, is that section within the ASTM that focuses on the language industry. The membership of the F43 committee includes company owners, CEOs, practitioners, linguists and users of translation and interpreting services (such as US government agencies and private clients), as well as individuals with a general interest in language and linguistics.

Goals of the F43 Standard
For much of the time I've been involved with the ASTM, I and my colleagues have been working on a draft standard for language companies which will accomplish two major goals: 1) help professionalize companies within our industry, and 2) provide some differentiation within the industry among companies in order to help clients select who will best serve their needs.

In order to meet our first goal, the standard aims to establish a baseline definition of a “Language Services Company,” as distinct from an individual provider of interpreting or translation. To create, if you will, an aspirational set of criteria that can guide new and emergent companies in the language service sector.

The second goal is providing a mechanism to help clients decide whom to use. If successful, it follows that those companies that meet the proposed standard can justify a higher price for their services, since they will have proven their value-added proposition.

It is my belief (and the raison d’être of the F43 committee) that operational standards will offer mutual benefits to both the companies who adhere to them and the customers who purchase our services.

Where Do We Stand?
So after six years and more than two dozen drafts, which I and others have written (and re-written), where are we today? As of mid-April, we have garnered approval from the vast majority of committee members for a new standard. We are in fact mandated under the ASTM guidelines to achieve 90% affirmative votes within the full committee for the standard in question.

I had hoped, as of this writing, that we would have cleared the 90% hurdle.

However, we are still one vote shy of the 90% threshold required for us to move the standard forward. 

The critical issue is the metric for the size of the entity and the experience of the entity to meet de minimis standards. The current draft requires that “during each of its three years of continuous operation, the LSC [Language Services Company] shall have grossed at least $100,000 per annum and/or an aggregate of $500,000… for the language services for which it is seeking certification.” 

The rationale for this requirement is to demonstrate that a company has the necessary experience to serve its clients. By meeting this benchmark, a company is assumed to have sufficiently developed procedures and methods that ensure a properly functioning company and a quality deliverable.

We hope to secure the one vote needed in the next week or two in time to unveil the newly-adopted standard at the ALC Annual Conference in Miami.

I urge all and sundry to please get involved with the ASTM, and I welcome your emails and/or phone calls.

If you wish to learn more about the process, or be involved in future projects to move our industry forward, please do not hesitate to email me at vhertz@accreditedlanguage.com.

Respectfully submitted,

Victor Hertz
President
Accredited Language Services
vhertz@accreditedlanguage.com