For a year and a half, Yves Valerus had a steady full-time job as a Haitian Creole–English interpreter: a predictable weekly schedule, a fixed hourly rate and benefits. She interpreted by phone and video for hospital visits, court proceedings and other critical moments. In 2025, after her employer said it faced a business downturn and adopted new scheduling software, her hours became fragmented and unpredictable and her pay dropped by nearly 20% from the prior year. As a single mother of three in Brooklyn, Valerus scrambled to cover essentials, prioritizing internet service so she could keep working remotely and stretching food dollars by traveling farther for sales.
Valerus and some colleagues are organizing with the Communications Workers of America. They also worry that the company is experimenting with AI to handle basic interpretation work. Their experience reflects a broader trend: over the past decade, algorithmic scheduling and other management tools have reshaped hourly work across many industries, often shifting business risk onto workers and worsening work intensity.
LanguageLine Solutions, which provides interpretation services to clients including the U.K. National Health Service and multiple New York City agencies, is part of Teleperformance, a global call center parent company that has faced scrutiny over surveillance practices. Interpreters described intensely demanding work from the start: translating insurance policies one call and a judge’s sentencing the next. Emotional strain is common; Valerus says she sometimes cries on the job when calls involve life-or-death decisions.
Workers say the small breaks that used to exist between calls have largely vanished, replaced by a mandatory 15 seconds between calls. That leaves interpreters little time to recover, stand up or stretch during video sessions, and increases the risk of errors. Anna Manciano, a Polish-English interpreter, said the pace made her lose focus and eventually contributed to her quitting in 2025 after the birth of her first child. LanguageLine said it “absolutely and categorically do not want this for our interpreters” and noted a health and safety committee reviews workplace matters.
Scheduling software can intensify work in other ways too. Hospitality workers have pushed back against programs that dictate the order of room cleaning, forcing consecutive heavy labor and long walks with equipment. Carlos Aramayo, president of UNITE HERE Local 26, has testified that such outcomes are management choices enabled by software, not inevitabilities of the technology itself.
At LanguageLine, one immediate scheduling change came under a pay code labeled AEX, which the company calls mandatory involuntary time off. Workers reported being assigned AEX on short notice — sometimes learning at the end of a shift that they had no work the next day — making it hard to plan or pick up other gigs. AEX time is unpaid. Documents shared with NPR show Valerus’s income fell about 18% from 2024 to 2025; one part-time interpreter saw pay drop by more than 70%. Even as hours shrank, some interpreters were restricted by the company’s code of conduct from working for other translation services.
LanguageLine said it has faced “headwinds facing our entire industry, including new policies instituted by the current administration,” and that schedule adjustments were made to reflect lower-than-expected volumes. The company stated it is piloting AI for “routine, repetitive tasks” and that the technology is intended to expand markets rather than reduce jobs.
Workers link the sudden fragmentation of schedules to LanguageLine’s adoption of NiCE, a workforce management platform that promotes “smarter scheduling, accurate forecasting, and real-time intraday optimization” powered by AI. NiCE highlights how scheduling tools can reduce labor costs; the company lists large corporations among its clients. LanguageLine said NiCE is used to forecast volume and determine schedules and to monitor real-time events like weather and travel disruptions.
Researchers note that while algorithmic scheduling has been widespread for years, few before-and-after case studies document direct wage reductions tied to a specific software rollout, making the LanguageLine example particularly notable. Daniel Schneider of Harvard’s SHIFT project said the company’s changes illustrate “all these transformations that have happened to hourly work in America” and that such software shifts business uncertainty onto workers: “It’s a risk shift.”
A decade ago, similar scheduling tools provoked public outcry in retail and led to investigations and some “Fair Workweek” laws designed to set baseline scheduling standards. But those protections often apply only to retail or other specific sectors. Experts such as Susan Lambert and Virginia Goellgast point out unions can negotiate scheduling practices that protect workers, and unionized workplaces tend to shield employees from some of the economic fallout of algorithmic management.
In response to reductions in hours, more than 200 LanguageLine interpreters signed a 2025 petition protesting changes. Since 2024 some workers have been organizing to form a union and have demanded higher pay, paid bathroom breaks and improved benefits. At a press conference at New York City Hall, comptroller Mark Levine urged LanguageLine to respect workers’ rights to unionize and said the city is reviewing contracts with the company for compliance.
LanguageLine acknowledged schedules have been “more unpredictable than normal” and said it is calibrating the scheduling system to provide more stability. Workers continue to press for change; Valerus is part of the union drive but is also seeking supplemental work to support her children. “This is very stressful,” she says.