Statement of Position Regarding California Assembly Bill 5 and Request for Exemption

The California State Assembly recently passed a bill that ATA believes will improperly classify the majority of the association’s members as employees, when in fact they are independent contractors, by choice, and work on a freelance basis with multiple clients, by design. Without an exemption, this bill would unduly lump together these independent professionals with individual workers who have not made a deliberate choice to provide freelance services. —

ATA recognizes that some translators and interpreters have not chosen to be independent contractors. Those individuals are often required to work as if they were freelancers by a single employer that controls their work, schedule, pay, and other job-related factors. People in those specific situations should have the right to be considered employees.

This situation, however, does not apply to the majority of ATA’s independent-contractor members, who have chosen to provide professional freelance services.

As such, ATA supports the right of our California-based colleagues to establish their own individual business arrangements, and respectfully requests that an exemption be made for our professional translators and interpreters.

Read the ATA Position Statement on California Assembly Bill 5

Founded in 1959, the American Translators Association is the nation’s largest professional organization for translators and interpreters. Its primary goals include fostering and supporting the professional development of translators and interpreters and promoting the translation and interpreting professions. ATA, based in Alexandria, Virginia, has nearly 10,000 members in over 100 countries. For more information on ATA, please visit www.atanet.org.