#16 Polluted TMs, LSP Sells Masks, RWS as Proxy, Loc at Corona Test Manufacturer

Florian shares his own bizarre story of being pitched coronavirus masks by an LSP over LinkedIn. Esther discusses news that LSPs are suing the Translation Bureau of Canada (Attorney General of Canada), one of the world’s largest translation buyers. LSPs claim that the Translation Bureau’s translation memory is “flawed and polluted,” which is costing them time and money.Florian unpacks RWS’s latest half-year trading update to March 2020. Revenues were down by -1.8% from 2019, but overall, Life Sciences and some large enterprise IT were not doing too badly, suggesting these sectors may take less of a hit from Coronavirus across the wider language industry. Florian shares localization insights from Swiss-based life science company Hamilton, which manufactures ventilators and coronavirus testing equipment. Hamilton has language services volumes of 3-5 million words annually, most of which is technical documentation (tech doc).The two close with a story on public sector interpreting in the UK, where Registered Interpreters have been given key worker status by the London Metropolitan Police during the Coronavirus lockdown, but are still battling for fair pay and appropriate safety measures to be granted. Links to the stories discussed in this episode:LSPs Sue Canada Translation Bureau Over ‘Polluted’ Translation Memorieshttps://slator.com/industry-news/lsps-sue-canada-translation-bureau-over-polluted-translation-memories/RWS Gives Early Indication of Pandemic’s Impact on Translation Industryhttps://slator.com/financial-results/rws-gives-early-indication-of-pandemics-impact-on-translation-industry/Inside Localization at Hamilton, Maker of Coronavirus Testing Workstationshttps://slator.com/features/inside-localization-at-hamilton-maker-of-coronavirus-testing-workstations/NRPSI Voices Concerns Over Fair Pay, Safety of Registered UK Interpretershttps://slator.com/industry-news/nrpsi-voices-concerns-over-fair-pay-safety-of-registered-uk-interpreters/