Source: Communications Workers of America
TP interpreters are organizing a union with CWA to address low wages and unsustainable working conditions, which impacts service quality for clients of LanguageLine Solutions and ZP Better Together.
(NEW YORK, N.Y.) — As interpreters employed by French multinational TP (formerly known as Teleperformance) continue to fight for a union in the United States, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) released a new study, Speaking of Safety: Remote Interpreters Report Unsafe, Stressful Conditions and Burnout at French Outsourcer TP.
The report, unveiled during a virtual press conference held on July 28, surveyed 245 TP interpreters across two TP subsidiaries, LanguageLine Solutions (LLS) and ZP Better Together, between April and June of 2026 on health and safety issues. Findings include:
- More than three quarters of respondents (76%) strongly disagreed that TP provides enough time between calls for workers to recover.
- More than seventy percent of respondents feel emotionally drained from their work either every day (51%) or a few times a week (20%).
- Nearly three quarters of respondents experience back or neck pain daily (41%) or at least weekly (32%).
“These constant back-to-back calls and sitting in my chair for a longer period of time make my body ache,” said Madhurima Ganguly, a Bengali LanguageLine Solutions interpreter. “I developed tailbone pain from sitting in one position constantly. I have to take pelvic floor physiotherapy, which is hard to find and expensive.”
“We help patients receive devastating diagnoses, families making life-changing medical decisions, victims reporting abuse, and individuals navigating emergencies and court proceedings,” said Yves Carmel Valerus, a Haitian Creole LanguageLine Solutions interpreter. “We carry those emotions with us from one call to the next, yet we are expected to immediately move on as though nothing happened. We are human beings, not machines.”
“I’m incredibly grateful for the work LanguageLine Interpreters do to help immigrant New Yorkers navigate our bureaucracy,” said New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler. “The conditions outlined in this report are deeply troubling. As a holder of these contracts, the City has a responsibility to ensure workplace conditions improve. As Chair of the Committee on Contracts, I will do everything in my power to hold Language Line accountable.”
Interpreters at TP LLS demanded in April to establish an elected health & safety committee, but the company refused. A 2025 survey of LLS interpreters found that interpreters face stressful working conditions and low pay, leading to high turnover and putting at risk the quality of service they are able to provide.
Workers at LLS are organizing a union with CWA to address low wages and unsustainable working conditions, which also impact service quality for clients. In 2022, TP agreed with UNI Global Union to enter a Global Agreement on Social Responsibility, which afforded workers the right to organize a union free of management interference and intimidation. While TP implemented this agreement in other countries, the company has refused to fully implement the agreement in the United States and refuses to include the United States in any renewal of the agreement.
For a recording of the virtual press conference, please contact rentralgo@cwa-union.org.
###
About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.
cwa-union.org @cwaunion