THE SORENSON COMPANY LIED, LIED, LIED ON MY BLOG POSTING WHICH ONE OF THE SORENSON MANAGEMENT DENIED SUCH EXISTENCE OF TERPS LAY-OFFS LAST TWO MONTHS AGO.
SORENSON RECENTLY LAID OFF TERPS IN CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE AREA ACCORDING TO THE CONCORD LOCAL NEWSPAPER REPORTING. THIS VRS COMPANY EVER DONE THE SALARY CUTS BY 15 PERCENT.
SORENSON LAID OFF MORE THAN 35 TERPS.
SORENSON WILL CLOSE THE CONCORD-BASED REGIONAL HUB OF ITS OWN AND BLAME THE RECENT FCC'S LATEST DECISION FOR LOWER REIMBURSEMENT FROM THE TRS FUND AFTER THE FCC'S OWN RECOMMENDATION FROM READING ALL THE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE VRS CONSUMER ADVISORY BOARD.
NOT ABLE TO INCLUDE THE ATTACHED LINK DUE TO COMPUTER ITSELF NOT MAKE IT POSSIBLE. I COULD NOT POST THE FULL NEWSPAPER ARTICLE DUE TO THE REAL STUPID DEAFREAD POLICY.
ASLIZE YOURS,
ROBERT L. MASON (RLM)
RLMDEAF BLOG
RLMDEAF@HOTMAIL.COM
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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Here is the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.concordmonitor.com/article/interpreters-for-the-deaf-out-of-jobs
Plato
I do not feel bad for most interpreters especially ones who own interpreting business really hurt our community. They charge universities, hospitals, corporations outrageous high. For an instance, when they hire interpreters and pay them 45/hr..they bill 200/hr. They are ugly business just like sorenson. No difference between them. Most interpreter services do not contribute to our community. They look at us as their grand prize because we give them jobs.
ReplyDeletePenny
Concord, New Hampshire
ReplyDeleteCity office closes; 35 people laid off
By Ben Leubsdorf / Concord Monitor
August 6, 2010
Thirty-five employees of a company providing video interpretation
services for deaf and partially deaf people placing telephone calls were
laid off when Sorenson Communications shut down its Concord office this
week.
The office in the Gateway Center, 25 Hall St., was closed Wednesday by
the Salt Lake City-based corporation as part of nationwide layoffs and
cost-cutting prompted by a reduction in payments the firm receives from
the Federal Communications Commission, a senior company official said.
“Operational adjustments were made across the board, across the
company, at all levels of management,” said Paul Kershisnik, the
private corporation’s chief marketing officer. “It wasn’t a
focused reduction in force. It was a very broad approach.”
Kershisnik declined to say how many of Sorenson’s roughly 6,000
employees are being let go because the layoffs won’t be finished until
today. He said “a very small number” of offices will be entirely
shut down.
The Concord office was the firm’s only center in New Hampshire and
ReplyDeleteemployed 35 people, he said, including interpreters and management.
Among the company’s other spending cuts, Kershisnik said, were
“significant pay reductions” for senior executives. He said his own
pay was cut more than 15 percent.
Karen Braz, 54, a Weare resident and full-time interpreter for the
Manchester School District, had worked part time at Sorenson’s Concord
office for about 16 months. She said she was one of perhaps two dozen
American Sign Language interpreters there.
She and several other employees were called into a meeting Wednesday
morning with company executives and were told, “We are closing the
center as of today. You have 20 minutes to gather your things. We have
boxes. That’s it. You’re done. Goodbye,” Braz said yesterday.
“And we were shell-shocked, to say the least.”
Other employees were told by phone, Braz said.
After leaving the office, Braz and her former co-workers went next door
to Burger King, “to have a milkshake because it was too early to go
drinking,” she said.
Labor Commissioner George Copadis said the state didn’t receive
notification of a mass layoff from the company. Sixty days’ notice is
required for companies with 75 or more full-time employees in New
Hampshire to shut down a facility or lay off more than a third of the
company’s workforce.
Sorenson Communications describes itself as the nation’s leading
provider of video relay service, or VRS, which allows deaf people to
place and receive phone calls over the internet by means of American
Sign Language. Using video equipment, the deaf person signs to an
interpreter in Concord or one of Sorenson’s other offices. The message
is then spoken to a hearing person on the other end of the line, or vice
versa.
The video-based phone system is an improvement over typing-based
systems, Braz said.
“It’s like night and day,” she said. “The technology is
astounding.”
But a change in how the FCC reimburses Sorenson and other VRS providers
forced the company to dramatically cut its costs, Kershisnik said.
The FCC pays Sorenson to cover the cost of providing the video relay and
other services in an attempt to ensure equal access to
telecommunications for all Americans. But the per-minute rate for VRS of
$6.24 was reduced last month to $5.07 for Sorenson and other providers
with a high volume of calls.
Kershisnik said the new rate, which will be in effect for a year while
the FCC conducts a broad review of its VRS policies, is less than the
company’s actual operating costs.
Sorenson asked the FCC to delay the new rate, but the request was
denied, Kershisnik said. The company then filed an appeal with the 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
The company’s request to delay the new rate was denied in an order
dated July 29.
Kershisnik said the company will continue the appeal, but the process of
reviewing the FCC’s new policy could take nine to 12 months.
“Since they denied our stay at the outset . . . that’s when we knew
that we had no recourse but to make these operational adjustments,” he
said.
In a June 29 press release, Sorenson Communications warned it would have
“to make certain operational changes and cost reductions” because of
the FCC’s lower interim rate.
Kershisnik said the company and other providers will work with the FCC
over the next year as the federal agency determines a new per-minute
rate “so that the rates can really support . . . a real strong and
robust interpreting community.”
he Concord office was the firm’s only center in New Hampshire and
ReplyDeleteemployed 35 people, he said, including interpreters and management.
Among the company’s other spending cuts, Kershisnik said, were
“significant pay reductions” for senior executives. He said his own
pay was cut more than 15 percent.
Karen Braz, 54, a Weare resident and full-time interpreter for the
Manchester School District, had worked part time at Sorenson’s Concord
office for about 16 months. She said she was one of perhaps two dozen
American Sign Language interpreters there.
She and several other employees were called into a meeting Wednesday
morning with company executives and were told, “We are closing the
center as of today. You have 20 minutes to gather your things. We have
boxes. That’s it. You’re done. Goodbye,” Braz said yesterday.
“And we were shell-shocked, to say the least.”
Other employees were told by phone, Braz said.
After leaving the office, Braz and her former co-workers went next door
to Burger King, “to have a milkshake because it was too early to go
drinking,” she said.
Labor Commissioner George Copadis said the state didn’t receive
notification of a mass layoff from the company. Sixty days’ notice is
required for companies with 75 or more full-time employees in New
Hampshire to shut down a facility or lay off more than a third of the
company’s workforce.
Sorenson Communications describes itself as the nation’s leading
provider of video relay service, or VRS, which allows deaf people to
place and receive phone calls over the internet by means of American
Sign Language. Using video equipment, the deaf person signs to an
interpreter in Concord or one of Sorenson’s other offices. The message
is then spoken to a hearing person on the other end of the line, or vice
versa.
The video-based phone system is an improvement over typing-based
systems, Braz said.
“It’s like night and day,” she said. “The technology is
astounding.”
But a change in how the FCC reimburses Sorenson and other VRS providers
forced the company to dramatically cut its costs, Kershisnik said.
The FCC pays Sorenson to cover the cost of providing the video relay and
other services in an attempt to ensure equal access to
telecommunications for all Americans. But the per-minute rate for VRS of
$6.24 was reduced last month to $5.07 for Sorenson and other providers
with a high volume of calls.
Kershisnik said the new rate, which will be in effect for a year while
the FCC conducts a broad review of its VRS policies, is less than the
company’s actual operating costs.
Sorenson asked the FCC to delay the new rate, but the request was
denied, Kershisnik said. The company then filed an appeal with the 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
The company’s request to delay the new rate was denied in an order
dated July 29.
Kershisnik said the company will continue the appeal, but the process of
reviewing the FCC’s new policy could take nine to 12 months.
“Since they denied our stay at the outset . . . that’s when we knew
that we had no recourse but to make these operational adjustments,” he
said.
In a June 29 press release, Sorenson Communications warned it would have
“to make certain operational changes and cost reductions” because of
the FCC’s lower interim rate.
Kershisnik said the company and other providers will work with the FCC
over the next year as the federal agency determines a new per-minute
rate “so that the rates can really support . . . a real strong and
robust interpreting community.”
Penny, you said: For an instance, when they hire interpreters and pay them 45/hr..they bill 200/hr.
ReplyDeleteIt does make sense to me because interpreters pay gas for a car, toll, food/drink , clothes and hairdo before , during and after interpreting plus support to feed their own family. Do a math first before saying something bad about interpreters.
bgmaron8
This is for Anonymous at 1:48pm....I think you ought to do the math. Terp agencies are charging at a higher rate with minimum (which is not necessary). Now a days from my experience Business are not hiring terps because of this damn MINIMUM. "Why should I pay them by the hour for travel time at that rate although they are only 10 minutes away from this firm - What is wrong with using the standard IRS mileage that most companies follow when reporting IRS Tax. This business feel something not right that is why we do not request this costly agencies".....That raises a good point and for that it hurt us Deaf Communities....So a agencies pays the terp 45 an hour but bill the company 200 per hour is a rip off...Sorry to state that but its a mere fact. They are out there taking advantage of by using us to require their services with a price way off base. Best policy is to hire yor own free lance and it will ease the headache. Think about that...I have nothing against the terp but how the agencies run at that rate is way over board. Smiles
ReplyDeleteWere you surprised? Not me. Nothing new. Sorenson not ethical.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:04pm,
ReplyDeleteI was not surprised about the Sorenson, Inc being unethical at all.
Just my real pleasure to expose the Sorenson's deceptive practices!
RLM
http://www.lvrj.com/news/diva-actress-turns-sweet-on-tweets-99190554.html
ReplyDeletethought you'd like to get a new blog about this article. good luck robert
Anonymous 11:01 am,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for submitting very interesting article about MM' spat with the MDI CEO.
RLM