Concern for interpreters

South Lanarkshire councillors raised concerns after sign language interpreters did not receive timely breaks at a full council meeting.

Some elected members spoke out last week over breaks given to the interpreters.

At the meeting, which lasted just over four hours, the Provost, Margaret Cooper, issued breaks, however some councillors pointed out that no break had been given in over an hour, which goes against protocols. This was eventually addressed and a break was given.

The protocol for meetings with sign language interpreters is to have a break after an hour.

The lack of breaks was first pointed out by councillor Janine Calikes, who said:“I think we need to have a better way of notifying that interpreters need breaks, because we’re putting in the chat and they’re not receiving their breaks.”

In response, the Provost stated that she tried to issue breaks accordingly and had hoped the meeting would soon end.

She said:“I’ve tried to take account of breaks as best I can, the meeting has been lengthy, I’m hoping we’re going to resolve that by coming to a conclusion in the next five or ten minutes, so I don’t propose to take a further break at this particular time.”

Cllr Gladys FergusonMiller said:“Just to echo what Janine was saying, there’s a number of hands up and I think it’s easy for someone who’s not interpreting to say‘we’ll let it go, we’re nearly finished’.

“I don’t think that’s fair to interpreters, we said that after an hour we would take a break. And if anyone has interpreted for an hour you’ll know how exhausting it is.”

The Provost then stated there had been a break within the last hour.

She said:“The last break we had was for 15 minutes and we resumed at 1.15pm, so we’ve been working for a further 45 minutes, we haven’t been working a further hour. It would be my intention if the meeting goes beyond that we could have another break.”

Cllr Ross Clark pointed out: “I think we should ask the interpreters if they want a break rather than just assume that they don’t need a break, I think that should be a theme going forward rather than just assuming, because I don’t think it’s worked terribly well so far in this meeting.”

To which the Provost replied:“I’m sorry I don’t agree with you and we have not been operating for a further hour, the agreement is that in principle after an hour we will have a five-minute break.”

Cllr Calikes pointed out: “We came back at 12.47pm so it’s been well over an hour.”

The Provost then realised it had been over an hour and a five-minute break was given to allow interpreters and councillors to have a rest.

Cllr Mary Donnelly said: “I’m just concerned about the interpreters and I’d like to reiterate the decision that we took when the meeting was running.

“If it was running up to an hour we would break in order to give them leeway and give them a break, so I’d like to reiterate that moving forward as a robust plan, so the interpreters get a break as a matter of inclusion and equality.”

Chief Executive Cleland Sneddon said:“As part of our concerted efforts to ensure full accessibility for all elected members, we provided two sign language interpreters for Wednesday’s meeting of the full council. They were able to work together to interpret proceedings, with one interpreting and the other taking a break in regular short spells. In addition, we have an agreement that there will be a short break for everyone involved, usually of five minutes, after approximately each hour of proceedings.

“These breaks will not necessarily be exactly on the hour but will be called at natural breaks in discussions. For example, the first break on Wednesday took place after 63 minutes.

“Towards the end of Wednesday’s meeting some members asked the Provost if another break was due and she suggested an hour had not yet passed since the previous break.

“When she realised the break was, in fact, overdue she immediately called for a break. When the meeting then reconvened after that final break it lasted a further eight minutes.”

The SNP’s Grant Ferguson is the first ever deaf BSL user to be elected a councillor in Scotland.