For a year and a half, Yves Valerus had a steady full‑time job as a Haitian Creole–English interpreter: regular weekly hours, a set hourly rate and benefits. She translated by phone and video for hospital visits, court proceedings and other essential encounters. In 2025, after her employer said business fell and it adopted new scheduling software, her hours were cut, fragmented and unpredictable. By year’s end her pay was nearly 20% lower than the prior year. As a single mother in Brooklyn supporting three children, Valerus scrambled—prioritizing internet bills to keep working remotely and changing how she shopped to save money.
Valerus and some colleagues have petitioned to unionize with the Communications Workers of America. They also worry the company is piloting AI to handle basic interpretation tasks. Their experience is part of a broader pattern: algorithmic scheduling and other management technologies are reshaping hourly work, shifting business risk onto employees and intensifying labor.
The company is LanguageLine Solutions, owned by call‑center giant Teleperformance, which has faced past accusations of worker surveillance and reached agreements with unions over monitoring. Interpreters describe emotionally demanding work. Calls can range from explaining insurance to translating a judge’s sentence. Workers say downtime has vanished: what used to be one or two minutes between calls is now often only a mandatory 15 seconds. Interpreters say the pace causes fatigue and mistakes; video interpreters barely have time to stand or stretch.
LanguageLine said it “absolutely and categorically” does not want unsafe conditions and that a health and safety committee reviews workplace matters. The company also said it faces industry‑wide headwinds and has adjusted schedules for lower‑than‑expected volumes, while piloting AI for routine tasks it says could expand the market rather than cut jobs.
Algorithmic tools are not limited to call centers. Hotel cleaners have fought software that optimized room cleaning sequences in ways that increased injury risk by forcing heavy lifting and unnecessary running across floors. “These are not pre‑ordained outcomes of the software,” said Carlos Aramayo, president of UNITE HERE Local 26. “They are management decisions.”
At LanguageLine, a scheduling change took the form of unpaid “mandatory involuntary time off,” listed under paycode AEX. Workers could have a full schedule one day and find AEX on the next day’s shift with little notice—even learned midshift. That short notice makes it hard to take other gigs or plan life. Tax documents reviewed by NPR show Valerus’s income fell 18% from 2024 to 2025; one part‑time worker’s pay dropped over 70%. Another interpreter, Anna Manciano, left after giving birth because of unstable income. Workers also say the company’s code of conduct barred them from freelancing for other translation services while their hours were being cut.
The timing of the scheduling disruptions matched LanguageLine’s adoption of NiCE, workforce management software that advertises “smarter scheduling, accurate forecasting, and real‑time intraday optimization” powered by AI. NiCE’s marketing highlights labor‑cost reductions; the company lists major corporate clients. LanguageLine said NiCE was used to forecast volume and determine schedules, and that it monitors real‑time events like weather and travel disruptions. NiCE did not respond to interview requests.
Researchers say this kind of before‑and‑after example matters. Daniel Schneider, a lead on Harvard’s SHIFT project, noted that algorithmic scheduling became common in retail more than a decade ago and helped prompt “fair workweek” laws in some places. But those protections typically apply only to retail, leaving many industries unprotected. Susan Lambert, a University of Chicago researcher, and Virginia Goellgast, who studies unionized call centers at Cornell, argue that unionized workplaces fare better: unions bargain over scheduling and protect workers from the economic fallout of algorithmic management.
Workers at LanguageLine pushed back in 2025: more than 200 interpreters signed a petition protesting hour reductions. Since 2024 some have been organizing for a union, calling for higher pay, paid bathroom breaks and better benefits. The campaign has drawn political attention. At a press event at New York City Hall, Comptroller Mark Levine urged LanguageLine to respect workers’ union rights and said the city was reviewing contracts with the company for compliance.
LanguageLine acknowledged schedules have been “more unpredictable than normal” and said it is calibrating systems to improve stability. But workers say software has shifted risk from the company to employees, compressing downtime and pay. Valerus is active in organizing and is looking for additional work to support her family. “This is very stressful,” she said.