The American Prospect : “Private Equity Is Taking Your Calls”

A recent article in The American Prospect analyzed private equity’s control of the Video Relay Service (VRS) market, an essential communication tool for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community.  

The American Prospect, September 30, 2024: “Private Equity Is Taking Your Calls”

Two private equity-owned companies dominate the VRS market: Sorenson Communications, owned by Ariel Alternatives, and ZP Better Together, owned by Kinderhook Industries and backed by The Carlyle Group. In order to provide a free service to users, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reimburses service providers like Sorenson and ZP Better Together, which are required through federal regulations to meet certain standards, such as: being available 24 hours a day/7 days a week; answering 85% of calls within 10 seconds; and ensuring confidentiality, among others. 

Since private equity took over these VRS companies, interpreters have reported worsened working conditions: 

Workers are raising similar complaints at Sorenson. Since the ownership change, Huseman holds the new management regime responsible for a certain level of dysfunction. “I feel like I’m rolling a big bin of bingo balls and any given day whatever ball rolls down that’s my luck for the day because everything is so crazy … it’s a dumpster fire internally there.”

She cited technology malfunctions that she’s sure are taking place on the company server’s end, because they happen so routinely across different network connections with callers. Sometimes, she said, five calls in a row will have glitches. When she reports these malfunctions, they mostly go unanswered. Her daily communications to management have been replaced with automated email responses.

Because of high turnover, Huseman is also being asked to interpret certain types of calls she isn’t fully equipped to handle. For example, she isn’t certified to do legal translations, yet has been forced to lately.

VRS interpreters have been organizing with OPEIU to advocate for better protections for workers and to address their allegations of ongoing quality issues as a result of mismanagement on the part of Sorenson and ZP Better Together. ZP Better Together has a history of labor disputes. Two Minnesota call centers suddenly closed in early 2024 and workers were laid off – a move that workers claim was in retaliation for an organizing drive with CWA.

Gaps in the FCC’s oversight of the VRS service have left workers vulnerable. Some critical changes could increase protections for interpreters, however:

Despite the unusual characteristics of this market, it’s essentially the same private equity playbook. They drive up rate increases while slashing costs on the labor side. They get away with some of the labor practices because VRS providers are not technically government contractors, which comes with greater worker protections…In 2011, the FCC actually issued a notice of proposed rulemaking and invited comments regarding potentially making VRS a contracted service. FCC noted that this would likely reduce costs through a competitive bidding process. It would also bring interpreters greater labor and anti-discrimination protections, as the Private Equity Stakeholder Project has noted.

For more on private equity’s presence in the VRS market, read PESP’s report “Lost in Interpretation: Private Equity’s Capture of a Vital Sign Language Translation Tool.”