Sale of ASL interpretation company ZP Better Together should not hinder improved wages for interpreters

Last month, the proposed sale of private equity-owned Video Relay Service (VRS) company ZP Better Together to Teleperformance was announced. Owned by private equity firm Kinderhook Industries, ZP Better Together is a provider of the Federal Communications Commission-funded Video Relay Service (VRS), a critical translation tool for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals provided by the federal government, used for facilitating communication with family, medical providers, emergency services, and others. 

The sale of ZP Better Together is anticipated to be finalized in early 2025. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), which recently released a report on the VRS company’s alleged mistreatment of workers, is calling for the following before the sale is finalized: 

• Kinderhook should meet with the ASL Interpreters Union as soon as possible and commit to a fair collective bargaining process, free from intimidation; 
• Kinderhook and Teleperformance to announce this new process as part of the sale;
• and for the FCC to investigate whether the company has appropriately increased wages of interpreters in accordance with the 2023 rate increases. 

“Kinderhook Industries could – and should – have met with the ASL interpreters who are the source of ZP Better Together’s profits,” said Justin Flores, Director of Labor and Jobs at PESP. “Instead, they’re taking a page out of the standard private equity playbook and selling the company, without investing in the employees who have built their business.” 

“For years, ZP Better Together lobbied the FCC for a rate increase, citing anticipated wages and benefits rising by 65% over the next five years. Aside from modest cost of living adjustments, however, workers at ZP Better Together report that they have not seen that reflected in wages a year after the firms secured 30 to 49% increases to reimbursement rates. Where did those federal funds go? Kinderhook can still do right by workers and raise their pay.”

ASL interpreters working with ZP Better Together have reported difficult working conditions: workers experience high levels of muscular strain, distress, and burnout, leading to high turnover, interpreter shortages and job dissatisfaction. 

Despite evidence of previous union-busting in the industry, 83% of respondents of a survey created by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) respondents support forming a union for VRS interpreters.