LANGUAGE SERVICES UK LIMITED

BRIDGING COMMUNICATIONS AT LOW-COSTS

TRANSLATION | INTERPRETING | TRANSCRIPTION | CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING

Terms and Conditions

In order to maintain a professional service, it is requested that you read and agree with the conditions set out below, any deviation may be subject to termination or disciplinary action being taken against you. All freelance interpreters working for LSUK Limited are required to provide or obtain an enhanced DBS certificate. Practitioners shall not delegate work, nor accept delegated work, without the full and informed consent from LSUK. Practitioners, in recognition of their responsibility to the society, their clients, their colleagues and the professional bodies of which they are members, shall always act with integrity and in accordance with the high standards appropriate to practitioners within the profession.

Professional Behavior for Translators:

Working as a translator you shall only carry out work which you believe is within your linguistic and relevant specialist competence, or which is to be checked by yourself as someone with the relevant knowledge or competence.

You SHALL translate only from those languages in which you can demonstrate you have the requisite skills.

You shall do the best of your ability to provide highest standard and faithful translation of the source text into the target text and use the right word in the right context.

You SHALL have sole responsibility and liability for work that you accept from LSUK, whether or not this is delegated or subcontracted. You are the data handler and you MUST securely store or safely delete the data.

You SHALL draw the attention to any significant ambiguities, errors, omission or imprecise language in the material on which you work.

Professional Behaviour for Interpreters:

You MUST not sub-contract your assigned work to another freelancer without disclosing it to LSUK.

Working as an interpreter you shall only carry out work which you believe is within your linguistic and relevant specialist competence.

You MUST resign to interpret where conflict of interest can be established e.g. engaging to interpret as a professional interpreter for a family member or a friend.

You shall interpret truly and faithfully what is uttered, without adding, omitting or changing anything. Accuracy is vital therfore you must ensure that you are direct and interpret only what is said to you.

Neutrality is absolute and you should resist from giving your own opinion as this can lead to suspicion of bias or prejudice. 

You shall not interrupt, pause or intervene and refrain from prompting or leading the client.

Our company is bound by an agreement of client confidentiality. The information you receive and anything witnessed or heard must remain confidential. You are not permitted to discuss these matters with anyone but the client and the service providing company (if necessary).

You SHALL maintain complete confidentiality at all times and treat any information that may come to you in the course of your work as privileged information, not to be communicated / disclosed to any third party without prior written authority.

You SHALL NOT derive any gain from the privileged information acquired in the course of work undertaken.

Freelancers shall keep confidential all matters in relation to a complaint, including the fact that a complaint has been made. This clause shall not apply to any information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to any applicable laws or the order of any competent court or other regulatory authority.

During assignments it is important that you disgress or allow improvisation to your interpretation.

Interpreters and translators are strictly forbidden to work directly with the client unless explicit authorisation has been granted by LSUK. Normally interpreters or translators should wait for a period of no less than 12 months after their last LSUK assignment before working for the aforementioned client. It is advised to read more about professional code of conduct as laid out by the Institute of Linguists, copies of which are available online or on request.

Agreed Fees:

Interpreting Time:

Unless agreed differently, we shall pay you the minimum of 1 hour or the booked time of interpretation time. Additioanl time will be paid in the increments of 15 minutes.

Travel Time:

Travel time is paid for your return journey time. It is the time it takes you to go from your location to the place of the assignment and back. Unless agreed beforehand, travel time is not applicable to jobs below 15 miles radius from your location in your local city in one direction. Travel time, where applicable, shall be charged / claimed for the most directed route as opposed to the fastest route.

Travel Expenses:

Travel expenses are to reimburse your expenses that may incur when attending an assignment in your local or away town. If travelling by car, we will reimburse you for return mileage from your location to the place of the assignment. Travel costs are paid in full, if travelled by public transport. We shall pay all applicable charged such as parking fee and bridge toll. Please note, you are required to provide us with the Fare Receipts, Parking and Bridge Toll Tickets . Travel expenses, where applicable, shall be charged / claimed for the most directed route as opposed to the fastest route. We shall not authorise payment for any fares, parking, transport or otherwise, unless you provide the receipts. In exceptional circumstances you are allowed to use taxi but you must obtain our authorisation before doing so. We may not pay for taxis use without prior permission.

Translation Work:

Translation work shall be delivered on time and in the required format. All work shall be proofread prior to being sent to us. Rates will be agreed between you and Language Services UK Limite prior to commencing any work. A minimum of 350 words will be paid at agreed rate. If required, a Purchase Order will be issued to set out terms for a particular translation.

Telephone Work:

For all over the phone interpretations you will be piad the agreed per minute rate. Minimum duration differ for each session and will be discussed prior to the session.

All work carried out by you on behalf of Language Services UK Limited is done on a freelance basis, and therefore you are responsible for any personal tax implications. You should be aware that you are not an employee of Language Services UK Limited, therefore you are responsible for your own tax declarations, National Insurance deductions and VAT. You must also have permission to work in the United Kingdom.

Payment Terms:

Payment are processed at the end of each month and reaches your bank on or after the 7th of the following month, Your payment covers jobs completed between 11th of the previouse month until 10th of the current month. All timesheets and/or invoices must reach our office, fully completed and signed, no later than 10th of the payment month. We encourage all our linguists to send all completed timesheets within 3 days after the completion of the assignment. We may not be able to process your payment if we do not receive your signed timesheets before the deadline. We can pay by BACS and cheque. It is your responsibility to provide us with the most up to date information.

If the Company makes an overpayment to you to which you are not entitled or is more than that to which you are entitled, you agree to allow the Company to recover the overpayment by deductions from your salary or other payments due to you. Any deductions will normally be made over the same period that the overpayment was made.

It is in your interests to regularly check your remittance slips. You shall direct all your payment related queries to [email protected] within 7 days of the receipt of your payment slip. Any payment related disputes will be adjusted in the next pay run.

Cancellations / Amendments:

If we cancel a booking on short notice (on the day) we will pay you 100% of your fee for all such cancellations / amendments.

While we appreciate that emergencies cannot be avoided, please Do Not Cancel On Short Notice Once You Confirm Your Availability.

It is essential that you provide us with at least 48 hours notice if you are unable to attend an appointment for whatever reason. Failure to do so may result in cancellation costs being payable by yourself. We will deduct equivalent to 100% of fee for all on the day cancellations or non- attendance and 50% for all cancellations within 24 hours. These charges will be recovered from your previous or future payments as deductions for non-attendance or cancellation. You must not delegate work to another party or person on your behalf.

Attendance:

You should arrive at least 5 minutes before the set time. Introduce yourself to make the client aware of your arricval. Isolate yourself and avoid engaging into any discussion with the service user. Do not enter in to properties before the arrival of your contact (the client). Your arrival or latenesses shall be reported to LSUK and or recorded on the timesheet. All mobile phones must be switched off or put on silient during assignments, unless requested by the client, or if permission has been explicitly granted.

Dress Code:

You must be presentable and be approprietly dressed every time you attend an assignment. A Tidy Casual Dress is acceptable.

ID Badges and Dress Code:

You must wear your interpreter Identity Badge every time you are attending an assignment. Be Aware! our mistry shoppers may report negative feedback to LSUK management#

Timesheets:

You must take LSUK timesheet to each assignment and send us a properly completed timesheet within 24 hours of the assignment. The timesheet must be signed both by yourself and the case worker ( assignment in charge). Incomplete timesheets can not be processed, all incomplete timesheets will be returned to yourself for complition and resubmission. It is your responsibility to claim all applicable expenses on the timesheet and provide us with the reciepts for any incurring expenses. We can not pay you all unclaimed or without receipts expenses at a later date. You can submit your timesheet to us online at our website, by post, using Whats App or by Email. As a professional it is your reposnisbility to send us the timesheet, we shall not be chasing you for your timesheet.

Timesheets delay our invoices thus we will not pay you until the month after if you do not send us timesheets by the 10th of each month.

Lateness:

You must ensure that you arrive on time since latenesses are not considered professional. Neither we nor our client would like it if you inform us about your potential latness a few minutes before or after the assignment’s start time. Communication is a king, All latenesses must be reported to us in good time and well before LSUK contacts you for your lateness.

You must plan your journey and allow suffiecient time to commute from your location to the assignment location on time. We operate a strict late atendance or no atendance fining policy. All latenesses more than 5 minute are considered lateness and any lateness more than 30 minutes are considered no attendance. We may have to provide fee free service in compesation for your late attendance or last minute cancellation – if this was the case we will have no other option but to deduct the fine amount from your payment for a previous or future job.

Self Employment – Freelance Work:

Interpreting and Translation work is self-employed / freelance work. When you accept an interpreting or translation work you will be conducting that as a Self Employed – Freelance professinal. We will not deduct your taxes from the agreed payment and as a freelance interpreter, you should understand that you are self-employed and you yourself are responsible for declaring your income from interpreting / transation work, payments of your taxes and NI contributions to HMRC. Additionally, you are indeminfying Language Services UK Limited from any result / liability should you failed to do so.

The terms of this agreement may subject to change in that case we will inform you of any changes to terms via email as an attahment or in the email body. We would be grateful if you could sign and post this document to us at your earliest convenience, it is advisable for you to keep a copy of this document. By signing this document, you have entered into an agreement with us to deliver your professional services as and when they are allocated to you.You are bound by the conditions set above.