Last week, about 1,600 independent contractor interpreters – who are represented by the Washington Federation of State Employees – ratified a contract with the state. It assures them pay of $30 per hour and creates a system for allotting work that cuts out a middle man.
The vote was 256-3 and the contract took effect Friday, the first day of the new budget year.
“We consider it a huge victory … It’s the first union contract for interpreter contractors in the nation,” Spanish-language interpreter Victor Hidalgo said from Snohomish County, where he has provided services for about three years.
The one-of-a-kind agreement comes just a few months after the federation and interpreters fought off Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposal to cut state spending for interpreter services in the face of a $5 billion budget gap.
Sen. Ed Murray led Democrats in putting in about $8.8 million of state funds for the program, and that is matched by $10.9 million in federal money.
Murray said interpreters are needed to help prevent health problems for patients and legal liabilities. He said it was “a personal priority” for him to keep the funds as a budget writer and that his Republican counterparts agreed late in their negotiations.
The budget also requires the state to revamp its interpreter system, which now pays about eight independent “brokers,” who in turn farm out work to foreign-language agencies that do the hiring and assigning of interpreter work. A new system due after Jan. 1 eliminates brokers and uses online scheduling tools.
Federation organizer Sarah Clifthorne said the double-layer of administration led to 44 percent of state payments going to middlemen. There also were illogical assignments – with Tacoma-based interpreters going to jobs in Seattle and vice versa, she said.
With the changes, Clifthorne said, “the state will stop wasting money and it will help interpreters make a living. Right now they spend all their time driving around.”
Jim Stevenson, a spokesman for the state Health Care Authority, which oversees the Medicaid program, did not dispute there were overhead costs. But he said brokers had given the state “a disinterested neutral third party” and that “when we did go to that system we did save a good amount of money.”
The agency is not resisting the new direction, which calls for saving about 15 percent in overall costs the first year and 30 percent in the second, he added.
“We are working with the brokers to extend their contracts during this transition period. That’s partly why the savings in the first year will be lower,” Stevenson said. Clifthorne said the system was frustrating to clients and interpreters, and only 1,600 of the state’s 8,000 certified interpreters participated. Interpreters provide most of their services in the populous counties such as King, Pierce, Snohomish, Clark, Spokane, Yakima and Thurston, she said.
Patients with limited English skills run risks such as overdosing on medications or misunderstanding other medical advice, and that had been a reason Washington provided the extra assistance to clinics and hospitals that accept Medicaid clients.
Lili Shang, a Beijing native who provides interpreter services in Mandarin Chinese, said the contract is a big relief.
“We’ll see how this goes. It is a reform. There will be a little getting used to. … but we are just overjoyed … Finally, our voice is heard,” Shang said. “We not only got the budget but the Legislature actually mandated that … we should get rid of the middle man.”
According to the federation, federal Medicaid law requires that patients be able to communicate with their medical providers. So budget cuts would have pushed the cost of translations onto medical clinics, hospitals or doctors.
