Spontaneous Interpreter Strike Delays Verdict Hearing for Belgium’s Biggest Drug Trial

The verdict hearing for Belgium’s biggest drug trial got off to a late start on October 29, 2024. What caused the 45-minute delay? A spontaneous strike by a dozen interpreters. 

That same morning, Belgium’s Ministry of Justice had announced a delay in payments for sworn translators and interpreters. But according to a number of Belgian linguists, as well as professional associations, the announcement was just the latest in a series of delayed payments. 

“[L]et’s be clear — this isn’t a new problem. These payment ‘hiccups’ have been around since at least 2021,” Dutch game localizer Loek van Kooten wrote in a blog post. “Some translators are waiting 90 days — triple the legally required payment term.”

Belgium’s Professional Association of Sworn Translators and Interpreters (BBVT-UPTIJ) shared in an October 29, 2024 press release that professionals in the national register of the FPS Justice were informed that service providers in ongoing criminal cases, or those slated for the coming weeks, would face payment delays. 

BBVT-UPTIJ stated that the organization would keep its 450 members apprised of the situation over the coming days, noting that “both spontaneous and structured actions by sworn translators and interpreters, with work stoppages and refusals, are certainly possible.”

Brussels newspaper De Tijd reported that the Justice department’s budgetary difficulties were known as early as the summer of 2024, with one administrator warning of a deficit of EUR 60m. De Tijd attributed the deficit to multiple factors, including high inflation and a spike in the number of complex, international drug trials, which require more language professionals. 

According to BBVT-UTPIJ, “the FPS Justice announced a deficit of EUR 23m for legal costs in criminal cases in 2024” as early as September 2024. The organization also estimated that “several hundred self-employed people are completely or largely dependent on the income from their assignments for Justice.” (The budget deficits have also affected other court experts and service providers in criminal cases, such as forensic pathologists.) 

The association expressed further concern that, even if additional resources are made available via a parliamentary committee for Justice, payments may not resume until January 2025.

BBVT-UPTIJ spokesperson Henri Boghe told The Brussels Times, “We hope to have a discussion with the [outgoing] Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt. If this does not materialize or yield a positive outcome, we will plan structured actions from mid-November.”

Some Belgian translators and interpreters may still be recovering from the impact of Covid-19, which caused conference interpreters to lose about 50% of their income, according to a report published in March 2021.