Government contractor continues to humiliate U.S. interpreters.

Dear Colleagues:

It has been about two months since some of our colleagues, for their own very personal reasons, decided to negotiate and enter into a professional services contract with SOSi, and agency part of a bigger operation that was temporarily awarded the contract, for a one-year base period that could be extended, to provide interpreting services at all courthouses and hearings involving the United States Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) better known as the Immigration Court.

For several days now, I have been listening to many colleagues who are now interpreting EOIR hearings all over the United States after signing a contract with SOSi, and the list of negative comments and complaints about the performance of this Defense Department contractor turned language services provider is appalling.

Although I would have never entered into a contract with SOSi after learning everything we found out about this company and its business model over the last few months, and I applaud those colleagues who decided to stay away from this folks, we cannot abandon our colleagues who decided to give this contractor a chance.  We have to defend our profession.

After reading emails, messages, personally speaking to colleagues, and talking over the phone, I heard the same terrible stories over and over again. They are unconscionable, but it is more disturbing the disclosure by some colleagues, in confidence and under the condition of anonymity, that they have been warned by this contractor’s agents not to speak ill of the company or suffer the consequences. I was told that this was a reason, at least In part, why some interpreters, very few compared to the ones who are vociferously complaining by the way, are praising SOSi and its practices.  I am not saying that some interpreters, perhaps in a certain area of the country, did not receive everything they claim they got from the defense contractor. In these cases some people often get everything they rightfully deserve.

When I heard of these allegations I decided to make a list of the most common “occurrences”, and I decided to read more on the company to see if there was some link between everything the interpreters are saying and the company’s business policy.  The first thing I came across was an interview with Julian Setian, CEO of SOS from September 18, 2014 by Lauren Budik of the “Washington Exec” when he was nominated for the “Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards” as “Executive of the Year” in the 75 million to 300 million dollar category. Although the interview is softball and self-serving as most of these “awards” interviews tend to be, there was an answer to one on the questions that it thought was very telling about the philosophy of the new temporary EOIR contractor. To the question: “What are the largest challenges that you predict your business will face in the next five years?” Setian’s answer was: “The biggest challenge in the next five years remains the most obvious… decreased U.S. spending and price pressure in the U.S. government contractor market. Regardless of strategy, that is a reality that everyone in our industry has to contend with…”  In other words, SOSi won the award because of their determination to be more frugal than the rest.  This could explain the low fees, late and incomplete payments, and all other monetary irregularities our fellow interpreters are suffering. (http://www.washingtonexec.com/2014/09/julian-setian-sos-international-llc-talks-2014-govcon-awards-nomination/)

I also found some very interesting statement by SOSi employees on the website indeed.com

One former employee from Reston, Virginia, states: “…I can not (sic) recommend this company… the senior leadership churns through managers in every department and the turnover is very high with each manager lasting an average of 1 year. This is due to the ineffective top leadership… before considering a position with this company it is advisable to talk to past as well as present employees… and research their (SOSi’s) reputation… by talking to teaming partners, former customers, etc…” A former instrument technician from Marietta, Georgia, stated that there was “… no room for advancement… not treated with respect at all… good old boy system…” (http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Sosi/reviews?fcountry=US)  There are many “good reviews” on this site, but the comments above explain, at least in part, the way so many interpreters apparently have been ignored and mistreated by SOSi during these first months of the contract.

Dear colleagues, we are on a permanent campaign to raise awareness of our profession, to protect our status as professionals, not laborers, and to defend professional appropriate working conditions needed for us to do our very complex and demanding work. It is for this reason, and because this contractor is still on its “probationary period” of one year, that we should consider very carefully if it is desirable to keep them there for the rest of the decade. If the answer to this question is no, we need to make sure that the U.S. government and the private bar know of these irregularities and help us decide to terminate the contractual relationship with SOSi once the 1-year base period expires.

Among the many complaints and negative comments about SOSi that have come to me, the following are the most frequent and widely present throughout the country:

• They do not pay on time, apparently in violation of the contractual obligation
• Many payments are partial instead of covering the total fee amount on the COI statement, apparently in violation of the contractual obligation
• When this defense contractor pays the interpreter, many times they electronically deposit a lump sum without any reference to the services been paid, making the interpreter’s bookkeeping impossible or at least confusing, apparently all due to lack of due diligence on the part of the contractor.
• SOSi does not have an accounting system needed for an operation of this size with the United States government. For this reason, the filing of invoices by interpreters are not acknowledged, and quite a few interpreters are being paid a fee lower than the one contractually agreed by the parties, apparently in violation of the contractual obligation.
• This temporary EOIR contractor is not reimbursing interpreters for travel expenses, and it has denied payment in cases when the hearing does not take place and the interpreter is already present at the courthouse of destination, apparently in violation of the contractual obligation.
• On repeated occasions, SOSi’s designated “payment processing” individuals are not fluent in English, and appear to ignore the policy and process to handle payment inquiries.
• Many interpreters have found it extremely difficult to speak to a contractor’s representative to iron out all of these issues, and many times their messages go unanswered.
• The contractor is attempting to run this very complex scheduling process nationwide without having any software to do it. Apparently they are using an Excel sheet just like any mom and pop’s business would do.

These irregularities are creating an environment where many interpreters are seriously considering rejecting all new cases, and in those areas where they are already declining assignments, immigration courts are developing a backlog due to the many cases that must be continued due to the lack of interpreters, and many cases that are heard by an immigration judge have to wait for a long time before one of the few contract interpreters who continue to work with no pay is free to attend that courtroom.

If you are a current immigration court interpreter under the SOSi contract, if you are an immigration court interpreter who did not have the stomach to deal with these individuals (bravo!) and decided to provide interpreting services somewhere else, or if you are an interpreter, not even a court interpreter, just a professional colleague, and your blood boils when you read about the way our current immigration court interpreter colleagues are being humiliated, directly by this defense contractor turned language service provider, and indirectly by the EOIR that apparently could not care less, I invite you to share this information with your colleagues, local media, social media, professional associations, attorneys’ bars and professional associations’ local chapters, like the American Bar Association (ABA) the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the National Immigration Forum, as well as your responsible, honest, caring local immigration judges (there is at least one everywhere and you should know who they are). I also invite you to share any ideas you may have that could eventually help our colleagues who are presently on a very bad situation, as many of them have not received any, or very little, income for quite some time.