The Translator's Bill of Rights

Index

1. Definitions
2. Introduction
3. Payment
4. Client Cooperation
5. Fair Evaluation
6. Civility
7. Translator's Responsibilities

• I. Definitions

  A translator is any member of Translator's Corner agreeing to perform any professional service via the SecureTrans Interface.

  A client is anyone using the SecureTrans interface in order to procure the services of a Translator.

• II. Introduction

  Translator's Corner acknowledges that all translators have the right to receive payment for any services rendered in a timely and honest manner.

  Each translator also has a right to work with a cooperative client who helps the translator fully understand the nature of the material through prompt communication.

  Translators also have the right to not be subject to arbitration proceedings or bad ratings unless a client has a legitimate cause to question the quality or timeliness of the final translation.

  The proceedings and norms of these three rights for translators, and the clients' respect of them (payment, client cooperation, and good judgment in evaluating the translator will be specified in the following statements.

• III. Payment

  Payment proceedings will normally run on a monthly cycle so as to streamline the efficiency of paying everyone in a cost-effective and timely manner. The procedure will follow this timeline:

  1. All jobs that have passed through the seven (7) day period after their submission without a case having been filed by the client and jobs which the client explicitly approved and released funds to the translator as of the first day of the month become payable.
  2. During the first seven (7) days of each month the translator can choose to withdraw funds from his/her account. The translator must decide how much money he/she wishes to have released to him and enter the amount and his preferred payment method. The translator will receive a confirmation email containing the details of the request, if said email is not received then translator should check his accounts page to make sure his/her request was processed correctly.
  3. Translator's Corner is then obligated to send the payment to the translator of all funds requested in the first seven (7) days of the month, during the following seven (7) days of the month.
  4. Urgency: The translator can request for his money to be sent outside the specified period. Any requests for funds made in a period of time outside of the time periods specified in the above steps will incur a 5.00 USD surcharge fee for processing and will be processed within 24 hours.

  Penalties:

  If payment is not processed by the site according to the norms and timelines set forth above the site waives the commissions on the payments requested.

• IV. Client Cooperation

  During the course of a translation it is common that questions will arise due to lack of context or terminology issues. These questions can be sent to the client via email (through the Job MessageBoard) and replied to via ComConsole or by replying to the original email. All communication will be logged.

  All communication must be responded to in a timely manner.
  A timely manner is defined as:

  • Within 12 hours of the time the communication was sent by the translator on any business day during the project besides the day the job is due.
  • On the day the project is due, any communication must be responded to within 2 hours of the time the communication is sent.

  Penalties:

  The Translator will be allowed to give feedback on the client's. If he/she feels it is necessary to give a negative rating (less than zero) to the client, then he/she should file a court case against the client to prove such a penalty is deserved.

  In addition, in a TC Online Court case translator may use this infraction against a client who files a case against him/her. If the record shows that the client did not cooperate with the translator according to the guidelines the client's case could be dismissed.

• V. Fair Evaluation

  When the client chooses to rate and give feedback it is assumed that the client used good judgment and had good criteria for the evaluation given to the translator.

  Penalties:

  If this is not the case, the translator does have the right to post a rebuttal next to the negative rating on his/her profile.

• VI. Civility

  1. All translators have a right to be treated in a respectful and professional manner. Any profane, vulgar, or offensive language written or spoken to translators in any communication will not be tolerated by Translator's Corner and the client faces having his membership terminated depending upon the gravity of the offense.
  2. All translators contacted via Translator's Corner must not engage in jobs outside the SecureTrans system with their clients of Translator's Corner that are of a nature specifically promoted and facilitated in Translator's Corner. Off-site contracting of said jobs will be grounds for membership termination of both parties involved in such an offense.
  3. Contact information can only be exchanged between clients and translators after payment for a job has been made when the parties determine it is necessary to clarify any questions or problems that need to be discussed in relation to the current job. However all communications done outside of ComConsole or emails sent through the site will not be considered in cases in the TC Online Court due the fact that these communications are quite easily forgeable. Because of this, if any decisions affecting the important details of the job are reached via an off-site communication they should be reposted on the site and agreed to by the other party.

• VII. Translator's Responsibilities

  The translator's responsibility, simply stated, is to submit to the client the requested jobs accurately and punctually. The exact specifications of what this means, and the corresponding penalties for not producing a translation of such quality are specified in detail in the Client's Bill of Rights. All translators should read this document, but especially the section pertaining to penalties.