Association of Translators-Editors-Proofreaders (Greece)
Behind the lines of books and websites, of articles in newspapers and magazines, operation manuals, leaflets, and film subtitles, there are professionals who remain invisible to most people. We, the employees and freelancers in the field of translation, editing, proofreading, and subtitling in Greece, are facing common problems that are becoming more and more acute:
- The demands of our profession are strikingly disproportionate to our revenues.
- Very often, translators, editors, proofreaders, and subtitlists are not acknowledged as specialized professionals. Some of us are often hired as office employees, whereas others are paid as freelancers despite being occupied full-time by one employer. In the absence of collective labour agreements, we are faced with a significant number of negative consequences.
- Delayed payments are the rule, rather than an exception.
- More often than not, there are no contracts clearly defining the terms of the brief offered by the employer (remuneration, deadlines, additional clauses).
- As a rule, the job assigned to us becomes flexible at some point. In other words, proofreading eventually turns into editing and editing into semi-translation, such change having, however, no effect on payment.
As a union, therefore, we are struggling for:
- Better working conditions: higher remuneration, better production management, sensible deadlines, timely payment, objective criteria for the costing of our work.
- Regulation of our pending insurance and fiscal problems.
- Acknowledgement and enhancement of our professional status.
- Promotion of the cooperation and solidarity among us.