For 18 months, Yves Valerus had steady full-time work as a Haitian Creole–English interpreter: a predictable weekly roster, a fixed hourly rate and benefits. She handled phone and video interpretation for hospital visits, court proceedings and other high-stakes moments. In 2025, after her employer cited a business downturn and introduced new scheduling software, her shifts became fragmented and unpredictable and her pay fell by nearly 20 percent compared with the previous year. As a single mother of three in Brooklyn, Valerus rearranged spending to cover essentials, prioritized paying for reliable internet so she could keep working remotely, and stretched food dollars by traveling farther for sales and discounts.
Valerus and several colleagues are organizing with the Communications Workers of America and raise concerns that the company is experimenting with AI to handle basic interpretation tasks. Their experience mirrors a larger shift: over the past decade, algorithmic scheduling and related management tools have reshaped hourly jobs across many sectors, often shifting business risk onto workers and increasing work intensity.
LanguageLine Solutions, which serves 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 say the job is emotionally demanding from the start—one call might involve translating an insurance policy, the next a judge’s sentencing. Breaks between calls that once allowed brief recovery have largely disappeared; workers report a mandatory 15 seconds between assignments, leaving almost no time to stand, stretch or collect themselves during back-to-back video sessions. That pace increases the risk of mistakes and emotional strain. Polish-English interpreter Anna Manciano said the relentless tempo made her lose focus and contributed to her quitting in 2025 after the birth of her first child. LanguageLine responded that it does not want those conditions for its interpreters and noted that a health and safety committee reviews workplace matters.
Algorithmic tools can intensify work in other fields too. Hospitality workers have pushed back against software that dictates the order of rooms to be cleaned, creating long sequences of heavy labor and extra walking with equipment. UNITE HERE Local 26 president Carlos Aramayo has testified that such results are management choices enabled by software, not inevitable outcomes of the technology.
At LanguageLine, one scheduling change appears under a pay code called AEX, described by the company as mandatory involuntary time off. Interpreters say they have been assigned AEX on short notice—sometimes learning at the end of a shift that they will have no work the next day—which makes it difficult to plan, pick up other gigs and pay bills. AEX time is unpaid. Internal documents shared with reporters show Valerus’s income dropped about 18 percent from 2024 to 2025; one part-time interpreter’s pay fell by more than 70 percent. Some employees also say company rules limited their ability to take outside translation work even as hours shrank.
LanguageLine said it has faced industry-wide headwinds and made schedule adjustments to reflect lower-than-expected volumes. The company acknowledged piloting AI for routine, repetitive tasks and said the technology is intended to expand markets rather than reduce jobs. Workers and researchers have connected the sudden schedule fragmentation to LanguageLine’s adoption of NiCE, a workforce management platform that advertises smarter scheduling, accurate forecasting and real-time intraday optimization powered by AI. The company says NiCE is used to forecast volume, set schedules and monitor events like weather and travel disruptions.
Researchers note that while algorithmic scheduling has been widely adopted, few clear before-and-after cases document direct wage cuts tied to a specific software rollout, which makes the LanguageLine story notable. Daniel Schneider of Harvard’s SHIFT project described the shift as moving business uncertainty onto workers: a transfer of risk. Public backlash over similar scheduling tools in retail a decade ago led to investigations and some Fair Workweek laws, but those protections typically cover limited sectors. Labor experts say unions can negotiate scheduling practices that shield workers from the worst effects of algorithmic management.
In response to shrinking hours, more than 200 LanguageLine interpreters signed a 2025 petition protesting the changes. Since 2024, some employees have been organizing a union drive and pressing for higher pay, paid bathroom breaks and better 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 for compliance.
LanguageLine has acknowledged that schedules have been more unpredictable than normal and says it is calibrating its scheduling system to restore stability. Workers continue to press for change. Valerus, active in the union effort, is also seeking supplemental work to support her children. She says, ‘This is very stressful.’