FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
May 21, 2007
For more information contact:
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Kurt Schusterman,
1-800-900-9478
HANDS ON VIDEO RELAY SERVICE AND FOUR OTHER VRS PROVIDERS PETITION FCC TO DECLARE INTERPRETER NON-COMPETE AGREEMENTS UNREASONABLE
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Hands On Video Relay Services (“Hands On”) of Rocklin, California, along with four other Video Relay Service providers has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to declare the practice of imposing non-competition agreements on video interpreters unreasonable.
In a filing made today, the petitioners asked the FCC to declare invalid non-compete agreements that a competitor, Sorenson Communications, Inc., of Salt Lake City, Utah, imposes on its video relay service interpreters. The agreements prohibit the interpreters from working for one year in any capacity for a competing VRS provider, or entity contracting with a competing VRS provider.
VRS is a service designed to allow deaf and hard of hearing persons to use telephone service in a manner equivalent to how hearing persons use the telephone. Deaf and hard of hearing persons sign into a video camera or videophone connected to an interpreter via the Internet to make a call. The interpreter then completes the call to a hearing person using the telephone network.
VRS is part of the Telecommunications Relay Service (“TRS”) program, administered by the FCC pursuant to Section IV of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Sorenson is reported to be the largest of 11 VRS providers.
Hands On Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ronald E. Obray said, “The supply of certified interpreters is very limited in the United States, so it is important for the VRS industry to manage this scarce resource responsibly and wisely in order to best serve the deaf community.”
The petition, Mr. Obray explains, demonstrates that the effect of Sorenson’s restrictive employment covenant is to artificially limit the supply of video interpreters and therefore raise the cost to recruit and hire interpreters. This, in turn, results, in higher costs for each VRS minute, thereby raising the overall funding costs for the TRS program and reducing the services available to serve the deaf community.
Mr. Obray added, “Our goal at Hand On is to provide the highest quality interpreting services in each and every community in America. We believe this anti-competitive practice by Sorenson hurts those members of the deaf community who rely on quality interpretive services. Sorenson’s non-compete practice restricts interpreters who may have only worked one day for them from working for any other VRS provider - even if they were terminated or wish to work for another provider in non VRS settings. The restriction applies at least on a state-wide basis so an interpreter who worked for Sorenson in El Paso, Texas would be prohibited from working for AT&T in Houston, Texas, some 750 miles away.”
“We strongly believe that the FCC should take action for three simple reasons: (1) to protect the right of interpreters to work anywhere they want for anybody who will hire them; (2) to protect the deaf community by ensuring that this scarce resource is managed wisely; and (3) to promote a competitive VRS industry which will provide customers with the possible service.”
Four other providers have signed on to the petition. They are Communication Access Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, located in Flint, Michigan, CSDVRS, LLC, headquartered in Clearwater Florida; Snap Telecommunications, Inc., of Pearl River, N.Y, and GoAmerica, Inc. of Hackensack, N.J.
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