SFGate.com

September 14, 2017

By Bob Egelko

 

 

A courtroom interpreters’ union and Superior Court officials in 12 Northern California counties reached a tentative wage agreement Wednesday in a yearlong contract dispute that has led to a series of one-day walkouts.

 

The agreement would provide a wage increase of nearly 21 percent for a four-year period that began last October, when the previous contract expired. Court officials said the agreement would raise interpreters’ wages to $92,888 a year by September 2020, though they would still be paid less than interpreters with federal courts or private contractors.

 

The 142 interpreters covered by the agreement are scheduled to vote on whether to approve it within the next 10 days. The region includes the Bay Area and coastal counties from Monterey to the Oregon border.

 

Interpreters translate for witnesses and other court participants who speak little or no English. 

 

Their union, the California Federation of Interpreters, led walkouts in many of the counties in April and July as negotiations sputtered. The union said its members had suffered a 4 to 6 percent loss in take-home pay this year because of mandatory increases in pension contributions, a loss the courts had offset with raises for other employees but not for interpreters.

 

While the proposed contract does not address that issue, the union said court officials have agreed to a “re-opener” that would allow a new round of wage negotiations in July 2019. Officials also agreed to treat part-time interpreters the same as full-time employees and to apply the wage increases uniformly in all counties, the union said.

 

“We’re happy to have resolved some of the issues that made interpreters’ pay too low,” said Mary Lou Aranguren, the union’s lead negotiator. Still, she said, “the courts continue to resist treating interpreters fairly based on the market for our skills. The battle is not over.”

 

San Francisco Superior Court Executive Officer Michael Yuen, chairman of court administrators for the region, said, “We are pleased that our interpreter employees will receive a well-deserved wage package. These professionals ensure that non-English speakers are able to access justice in our courts.”

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. 

 

 

 http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Court-interpreters-near-end-of-labor-dispute-with-12196004.php