Today, a petition was started against the manner in which ProZ.com runs its job-placement service for the translation industry.

Here’s the key passage from the petition:

…as in any freelance profession, we believe the freelancer and not the client should establish working conditions, prices, etc.

We hope that ProZ.com will take swift action to revise its job posting system to bring it in line with its stated mission to “serve translators” and deliver “essential services, resources and experiences that enhance” translators’ lives.

The main point here is that those who are looking for a translator are essentially allowed to “dictate” the rate they are willing to pay, rather than it being the freelance translators who propose the rates at which they are willing and able to take on a given type of job, as should be the case — and as is the case in virtually every industry there is. After all, it’s the product supplier or service provider who knows how much it costs to produce a product or service, not the customer. All the customer can do to “influence” prices is to shop around until they find the price they are willing to pay for the quality they feel they need.

Of course, ProZ.com didn’t “cause” the problem of low rates and poor quality in the translation industry, and they aren’t even the only ones who run job boards in this way. But they certainly are now a powerful force in the industry, so they have the power to influence how things are done and how translation service providers are perceived by potential customers.

In fact, many translation agencies — particularly the “chop shops” mentioned in a previous post of mine — also attempt to do this same sort of price dictating, so it’s a problem that is fairly common in the translation industry. But if ProZ’s stated mission is to “enhance the lives of its members [i.e. translators]“, placing this sort of price-setting power on the demand side of the industry, thereby perpetuating an existing problem, wouldn’t seem to be the best way to achieve that.

Certain very large corporations are able to essentially dictate their own prices with their suppliers, but why would ProZ want to help all potential translation customers to have this same sort of power?

I feel I should also mention that I’ve recently written favorably about a service, myGengo, that also fixes prices in this same sort of way. Here, though, at least in theory, myGengo is seeking to fill a very specific niche — i.e. short, quick, generally simple translations that a translator can do now and then, essentially in their free time, and that people are currently trying (largely ineffectively) to do with tools such as Google Translate — and the company is very clear about why it’s rates are set so low and what both the customer and the service provider should expect at those prices. This differs from ProZ (and others) in that frequently very large jobs are posted at very low rates, meaning that a translator would have to dedicate a significant amount of their time earning a very low rate if they choose to accept the job.

And sure, we’re free not to accept the jobs posted at very low rates, but the point is that it shouldn’t be the customer proposing the rate at all. It should be the service provider, i.e. the translator, the one who knows how much the service costs to provide and how much their level of quality is worth. Some have suggested that ProZ not allow customers to post jobs at very low rates, but it seems to me it would be more appropriate for ProZ to be in a position to encourage its members not to offer their services at very low rates. If they were to stop allowing customers to recommend rates at all, ProZ would then be in a better position to help their members sell their services at an appropriate rate. Not through price fixing or by setting some sort of minimum rate, but by educating their members and giving them the tools they need to market themselves to potential customers.

That would be a real value-added service ProZ could provide that would make a premium membership worth paying for.

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