Well....not everybody does what they should or could.

Then it is only certified translations and certified interpretations where we could do something without suppresing the free market, it is a public service after all.

How come notaries have guaranteed prices?

And they don't suppress the free market?

Besides I was talking about MINIMUM GUARANTEED PRICES

not about "fixed prices for commercial translations"....just minimum, without suppressing anything

just guaranteeing the minimum standard payment for the translator, IN ORDER TO AVOID DUMPING PRICES, How about this?

Originally written by Stefan Macovei on September 14, 2009 12:03 PM Then it is only certified translations and certified interpretations where we could do something

Absolutely! Those are regulated in Poland, but the problem is the State's misery -- the government pays very little for those services. Luckily, we also operate on the regular market where we are free to set our own prices. Generally, though, there is not much difference between certified and non-certified translation rates. They are both stagnant in Poland due to competition and CAT tools. So, back to square one...

As long as certified translators in Poland

represented by the only National Certified Translators Association

think  that there shoud be a minimum guaranteed price for certified translations on the free market

or the minimum guarantee price should be increased

they are able to immediately suggest or update such prices to the Ministry of Justice

and the Ministry of Justice approves it (just like for notaries) 

and it becomes a law.

Also minimum prices for commercial translations should also exist. 

I repeat MINIMUM GUARANTED COMMERCIAL/CERTIFIED TRANSLATION PRICES. NOT FIXED PRICES.

And There is another tricky question: maybe the association did not do a good job in calculating the professional responsibility according to percentages> There are big SUBSTANTIAL  amounts of money  written in the texts that are to become certified translations. That's the catch. Think like notaries. How did they manage? The system and documents are identical. ( almost) LEGAL THINKING IS THE SAME

IT IS NOT JUST A LINGUISTIC SERVICE.

IT IS A LEGAL SERVICE ABOVE ALL.

LET'S THINK LIKE LEGAL STUFF.

SWORN TRANSLATORS THINK LEGAL, NOT LINGUISTICALLY.

Originally written by Stefan Macovei on September 14, 2009 12:26 PM think  that there shoud be a minimum guaranteed price for certified translations on the free market

It does exist but is considered too low by many.

they are able to immediately suggest or update such prices to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice approves it

Suggest and update they do, immediately. It's that the Ministry delays any constructive response for years...

Well , as i said, maybe the certified translators association did a poor job.

The Romanian Ministry of Justice is also postponing a professional group to identify certified translators problems and perhaps even incorporating the National Certified Translators Association and right now we are talking to the Prosecutors General Office.

Maybe the Polish association should also stop "talking" to the Ministry and start talking to the Prosecutors Office.

I am sure they didn't do that.

In fact... any institution is bound by law to respond withtin 30 days.

So.... What reply did you get?

Lack of answer on behalf of the institution means.... someone should loose his job quickly, that is an employee of the Ministry of J

We also have some serious issues: like non certified commercial companies, share the profit with certified translators based on abusive agreements. What better reasons then to immediately incorporate the Certified Translators in order to be able to solve the "real problems"

real problems:

1) unauthorized personnel involved in authorized activities

2) setting up the professional body

3) minimum payment for certified translations for the so called "free market of certified translations" proportionally to the figures that are mentioned in the certified translations. that is if it is a 20 milion euro contract -  to be able to legally cash a certain minumim percentage, just like notaries according to a "table"

4) clearly defining what the sworn interpreter does and what the certified translators doesn't, we currently share the same authorization and are paid just for one service due to improper use of the authorization

5) Drafting a general services contract just to be simply filled in, distinctly for translation, interpretation, certified translation, sworn interpretation.

6) becoming a member of the Liberal Professions Association of Romania www.uplr.ro

7) drafting the code of ethics

8) improve the official database held at present by the Ministry of Justice

9) ban non-translation specialized philologists who DO hold authorization from the Ministry of Justice by issuing a second authorization given by the professional body, in addition to the authorization from the Ministry of Justice

10) continuous professional training

11) bringing together unofficial and official translators 

12) establishing a membership fee

13) keeping a friendly relationship to the Ministry of Justice 

14) representing sworn translators

15) an active role nationwide and internationally

16) stop thinking linguistically, starting thinking legally

Originally written by Stefan Macovei on September 14, 2009 12:40 PM Maybe the Polish association should also stop "talking" to the Ministry and start talking to the Prosecutors Office.

The Prosecutor's Office is also supervised by the Minister of Justice...

... any institution is bound by law to respond withtin 30 days.

In difficult cases it's 60 days. So every 60 days there is some sort of acknowledgement of receipt of correspondence with assurances that they are pondering the issue, but the State budget makes impossible an immediate remedy... Imagine, at one point, when tax law changed, sworn  translators became subject to the payment of VAT without having at the same time the right to pass it on to their government customers who would go by the set table which contained net rates as final fees. In other words, the government would pay you EUR 18 for 300 words, but out of that, due to a sudden loophole in the new law, you would have to take out 22% to cover the VAT, so the effective rate dropped from 0.06/wd to under 0.05/wd. While the Ministry solved this problem immediately for notaries and lawyers, it took them, I dunno, a good four years to fix it for sworn translators. I don't get hung up on these issues though, because I recoup what I consider due to me from direct non-government clients...

1) in my case the prosecutor's office is related to the unauthorized persons, however we want the police or customer's protection or the prosecutors to identify them

2) the reply you get is: "we are pondering" , unfortunately THIS IS NOT A LEGAL REPLY, so you can sue the Ministry because of lack of legal answer to the matter. in fact it is an ommission to give an answer, practically it is no answer at all.

3) The VAT is not really an issue for non commercial certified translators

However I heard there might be a threshold and that notaries do pay the VAT. Things get complicated here...

to recoup what I consider due to me from direct non-government clients...is what i am talking about, we want this guaranted by law: minimum prices, much higher than the ones in court, actually similar to notaries (expressed in percentages)

 4) Last resort: Have you ever considered sueing the Ministry of Justice, since postponing and/or pondering is not a legal answer? Some employees just should be kicked out or do their job.

I'm new but I agree how various this "marketplace" is and how dumped the prices are!

I also think that it would be our (freelancers) right to require minimum standard payments.

Thank you for your concern. 

 i do not know how well certified translators are protected by law as regards non governmental clients - MEANING RECOUPING -  but i am sure there should be a SOCIAL PROTECTION BY MINIMAL PRICES expressed in percentages , just like notaries have, in fact we are the next kin of notaries.  maybe i AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH AT THINKING