logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Advertise on Slator! Download the 2021 Online Media Kit Now

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
Backlash Against Australia’s Workplace Regulator for Machine Translating Its Website

3 years ago

February 26, 2018

Backlash Against Australia’s Workplace Regulator for Machine Translating Its Website

Industry News ·

by Lance Ng

On February 26, 2018

3 years ago
Industry News ·

by Lance Ng

On February 26, 2018

Backlash Against Australia’s Workplace Regulator for Machine Translating Its Website

Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian government’s workplace regulator, has drawn critical comments from the country’s language industry after launching a multilingual version of their website.

Fair Work is an independent statutory office established on the Fair Work Act in Australia and provides free services to all workers and employers. In addition to enforcing workplace laws, they also provide information and education as well as handle queries and investigate complaints from the public.

As the public authority for workplace laws, Fair Work has a very comprehensive website providing detailed information on employer/employee rights and obligations such as Pay, Leave, Redundancy, Taxes etc., which it has just integrated with Microsoft Translator so that the whole website can be translated into 40 languages.

Advertisement

“We stand firm in the view that implementation of machine translation on such a high profile government website, dealing with workplace rights of Australians is inappropriate and dangerous.” — Costa Vasili, CEO, EthnoLink Language Services

This move initially received positive local media attention with SBS News lauding Fair Work’s effort to go multilingua. The news outlet highlighted how a multilingual website can benefit migrant workers who may speak a different language and are unsure of their rights as workers.

Australia has always been a migrant society and more so in recent decades as the economy boomed. It has an active migration program which saw 183,608 migrants given visas in the assessment year ended June 2017. Of these migrants, 67.3% were given entry based on ‘skilled worker’ visas.

Translations are “Nonsensical”

But good intentions sometimes backfire. The move to rely on machine translation across an important government website immediately drew criticism by some members of Australia’s language industry.

Costa Vasili, CEO of Melbourne-based EthnoLink Language Services, wrote to Slator and said, “The implementation of machine translation on such a high profile Australian Federal Government website is unprecedented and worrying. Predictably, the results of this machine translation are poor and feedback from our professional translators is that for many languages the translation is nonsensical. We stand firm in the view that implementation of machine translation on such a high profile government website, dealing with workplace rights of Australians is inappropriate and dangerous.” Other local translators have voiced similar comments on social media publicly.

Slator reached out to Fair Work for a comment and an official spokesperson defended the use of machine translation as follows:

“Our new website translator enables customers to find and read the full suite of information across our website in their preferred language. The solution we’ve implemented enables us to include a professionally-translated custom dictionary to ensure translated information is contextually accurate. We will continue to refine this based on our customer’s feedback and experiences, to ensure they have the best possible experience and find information they understand and can apply to their situation.”

In addition to machine translation, the spokesperson pointed to the ‘Language Help’ section of the website, which provides professionally translated information and resources in 30 languages, including videos (dubbed in foreign languages) and downloadable files. The public can also call them on a free helpline which includes an interpreting service.

The spokesperson did not respond to our question on why they specifically chose Microsoft Translator.

Misplaced Expectations of MT

This incident is another example of the mistakenly high expectations that non-language professionals sometimes place on machine translation (MT) quality as it stands right now.

While research into machine translation is experiencing an unprecedented boom, MT quality is still nowhere near the level where it could be relied on to translate critical information.

Hat tip to Costa Vasili, CEO, EthnoLink Language Services, for alerting us to this story.

TAGS

AustraliaCosta VasiliEthnoLink Language ServicesFair Work Ombudsmanmachine translationMicrosoft Translator
SHARE
Lance Ng

By Lance Ng

Slator Contributor. Has been, at various times in his career, writer, translator, educator, banker, financial advisor and entrepreneur.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
iDISC Awarded ISO 27001 Information Security Management Certification

iDISC Awarded ISO 27001 Information Security Management Certification

by iDISC

XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

by XTRF

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

by Tilde

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Memsource MT Post-Editing Pricing Models Webinar

    Pricing Models for MT Post-Editing Workshop

    by Memsource

    · February 3

    Hear a panel of innovative localization professionals share different approaches for MT post-editing pricing.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

SDL

SDL

Smartling

Smartling

Lingotek

Lingotek

XTM International

XTM International

Smartcat

Smartcat

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

by Esther Bond

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

by Monica Jamieson

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,000 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.