Post-ESF report: ANNEX on Reimbursement

October 1. To: Babels ESF

Regarding BABELS reimbursements

The agreement we had was that all reimbursements would be made by the 1st of October. Unfortunately we have underestimated the administrative work with the payments and will not be able to finish all the payments by tomorrow, October 1st. For this we are very sorry. So far one third of the transfers have been made but we are working as hard, and quickly, as possible to complete the remaining part. We hope that this can be made during the coming week, but will make all transfers at least by October 31st.

We hope for your understanding and ensure that all reimbursements will be made.

Regards

The board of ESF 2008 through Elin Brusewitz

October 4. To: Elin Brusewitz (Board of the ESF 2008)

Dear Ms Brusewitz,

Your e-mail regarding Babels reimbursements has reached the distribution list of the Babels coordinators of the Malmö 2008 ESF. After having read it and arrived to a consensus, we have agreed to ask from you the following:

1. We think it is fair that all interpreters are informed of these new circumstances as soon as possible, by means of a formal letter. We will gladly forward your letter by e-mail to the interpreters involved. Please place the drafting of this letter as top priority, so that we can send it to the now worried interpreters at the start of next week.

2. It is essential that the letter explains how you intend to deal with the present situation and how you can give Babels updates every day on the progress of the reimbursement. We believe a googledocs viewable-only page would be the best solution. Should your team need advice with this, we can explain the technicalities.

3. The letter should specify exact, realistic dates and objectives that can and will be met and it should be clear that there will be no more delays. We are confident that now that you have done some of the reimbursement, you will surely be better prepared to assess the situation.

4. You will be on the receiving end of the message sent to the volunteers waiting for their reimbursement, so please make sure the message is clear, in order to best avoid a repeat of the failed communication during previous exchanges with Babels volunteers. It should be specified that there will be no further delays, in order to comfort the people who have not received their reimbursement yet and are becoming worried.

Regards

The team of Babels coordinators for Malmö 2008

October 6. To: Babels ESF

To all interpreters of the Babels network:

On behalf of the ESF board I would like to thank you for your effort during the forum, and to say that we are very sorry for the delayed reimbursements. We are doing our very best to solve this, and to make sure all interpreters are being reimbursed as soon as possible. Our goal is to finish the reimbursements this week.

This is an update on where we are right now in the process:

There is a list of interpreters that have left us with incomplete and/or non correct information regarding paypal payments or bank transfers. All of you will recieve an e-mail where we ask you to complete, or double check and send to us again, this information. The transfers can not be made until we recieve the correct information.

Those who have left us correct information, a majority, will recieve their reimbursements the coming week.

Because of the factors above mentioned, we can not give you a new deadline.

To finish all babels reimbursements is of top priority to us. All interpreters will be reimbursed, it is not a matter of money, but of time.

Considering that, our priority is to finish the reimbursements. Updating you on each individuals status in the reimbursement process must be seen as a measure that takes time from completing the transfers.

We hope for your understanding.

Regards,

The Board of ESF 2008 through Elin Brusewitz

October 9. To: Elin Brusewitz (Board of the ESF 2008)

Dear Elin,

I hope you are still alive, despite the avalanche of work.

This is a message in the name of the other coordinators.

We had suggested that you use googledocs to keep us informed of the progress of the reimbursement process. Have you tried?

If you have no time, you can send me the excel/word file, whatever it is you are using to keep track, and I will put it online myself on googledocs, so you can use it and we can keep track, without disclosing personal information, and wasting time.

In the absence of more detailed information on how things are going, we are beginning to worry, and things might quickly get out of hand. We all want to avoid problems and recriminations.

Can you send me a file with the information, or post it directly on googledocs? Can you please reply as soon as possible, and at the latest by Saturday 11?

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Yan B.

October 12. To: Elin Brusewitz (Board of the ESF 2008)

Elin,

Saturday is come and gone, and I’ve received no update. I know you have forwarded my message to the Treasurer, but am waiting for him/her to send me the information.

What am I supposed to think/do?

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Sincerely,

Yan

October 12. To: Babels ESF

Hi

It’s me who are doing all the transfering and I don’t have time to update any lists. More than 100 transfers are complete and I will continue this work later on today. Besides being responsible for the economi I also have a daytime work. The problem is that we don’t have any employes and I don’t know if there is anyone else that are able to find the time to do what you request.

Regards

Anders Palmqvist

October 12. To: Anders Palmqvist

Hi Anders,

Can you send an email to esf@babels.org everytime you have finished a reimbursement, stating the name + amount reimbursed?

We really need to have updates on this, as the deadline for reimbursements is looong passed, and interpreters do not know what is going on. I know you are working a lot, but you must understand that you are not the only person concerned here.

Copying the names and amount paid will take time off from the reimbursement process, but we’d rather you took 2 hours more, rather than remain ’in the dark’ without knowing what is going on.

Do you understand?

Best,

Yan

October 16. To: Anders Palmqvist

Anders,

Following my email on Sunday, in which we asked you *explicitly* to take time off the reimbursement process to send us an update on who had been reimbursed, and who hadn’t, we have had no reply from you. Thank you for that. It confirms what we have already seen in Malmö: you refuse to act responsibly and transparently.

We proposed you to send an email to esf@babels.org for every person for whom you had processed a reimbursement claim. We have received no update. Have you done anything at all? How can we be sure?

We have RECEIVED NO UPDATE. We are almost ONE MONTH after the forum was finished, and we still do not have a list of who has been reimbursed. Is this normal?

NO. It is absolutely NOT NORMAL.

We are beginning to be very angry, AGAIN, faced with your sheer incompetence and lack of respect for the hard work of hundreds of volunteers.

We are expecting an answer from you IMMEDIATELY.

We are not expecting excuses, we need HARD FACTS, we need NAMES of who has been reimbursed, and who hasn’t, and we need them NOW.

We hope this is clear. Once more, you have shown us this is the only language you can understand. If you, or anybody else in the board (copied in this email) prefer to ignore this email, Babels will take immediate action.

We have signed statements by Elin Brusewitz, member of the Board, that reimbursements would be completed by October 1st. This, and several other proofs, will serve us to file proceedings for breach of contract.

In the absence of immediate and clear proofs of goodwill, we will be seeking redress by any possible means.

Babels coordinators for Malmö 2008

October 17. To: Babels ESF

Hi

Lina Filopoulou stayed for free at my former apartment for nearly a month. No costs what so ever.

I went from work 22,00 and met Lina and Sophie to by travels and we finished about 01,00 and I took the bus and where at my apartment by 02,30 and had a few hours of sleep before I had to attend a meeting in the morning and then went to work again.

Two times a had to take a cab when I finished work to be able to meet Lina at Inka Tours a travel agency and by flight tickets. Those cab rides I payed myself -in solidarity.

Belive it or not I wasn’t responsible for the problems that we had with our account during the forum I tried to solve the problems that accured and you where not my only responibility. You will never know what I went through and I don’t think you care either. I have payed you about 4000SEK of my own money to you money that I will never ever get back.

The last month I have not slept nor eaten enough and been under a constant preasure and have had a stressful life. Because of a pain in my heart region for the last two weeks I went to a doctor who made it clear that I risk my health by not taking care of myself in a proper way and that the decision is on me if I am able to continue or not.

When I write to you that I’m not able to do anything else than to try to do all the transfering is that not of ignorance but reality.

If you have any objections on that I think that you should adress the board of NOK.

Your favorite hate objekt and the ignorante.

Anders Palmqvist

October 19. To: Anders Palmqvist

Dear Anders,

We are truly sorry to hear of your health problems. We would also like to thank you for your efforts before and during the ESF to help Babels do its work.

We believe misunderstandings and mistrust are often due to a lack of proper communication. Had we been informed that there were going to be problems regarding accommodation, reimbursement and so on, as soon as you could foresee them, we would have planned accordingly, and we would not have had any need to resort to ultimatums, threats, and angry letters.

The problem is when someone tells you ’We will do this’, and then we find out it has not been done. It is good to warn us, as Elin has done, that ’We have not finished the reimbursement, but we’re doing it everyday’. But it is much better to devise a simple system by which we do not have to harass you with questions, because we can see that you have processed 40 reimbursements on Monday, 32 on Tuesday, etc.

When Babels started confirming travel with interpreters, Babels created a system by which Francisco and you could follow the confirmation process *in real time*, so that you could verify, *at all times*, what had been done, how much it cost, etc. This way, you didn’t have to ask us anything: the information was available to you, in all transparency.

This is all we ask. That we can check whether Mr. Smith has been reimbursed, and when.

You can complain about the angry letter we have sent to you, but please understand that we, members of Babels, receive angry letters from dozens of interpreters who ask for information which we *do not have*... we meet interpreters everyday in our workplace, and we cannot even tell them what is going on. Imagine facing all these people face to face, everyday! It is extremely unpleasant and very very stressful.

All that we ask you is that you take the time to send us emails with names of people you have reimbursed, and to send an email every time you have processed new reimbursements. We do *not* want to harass you. Believe it or not, we are trying to help. But we need you to cooperate.

In the hope that all this nightmare will soon be over, and that you will be able to rest and to get better,

Sincerely,

Babels coordinators for the Malmö ESF

October 20. To: Anders Palmqvist

Anders,

First of all, I don’t see why you mention my name in your reply to us. Didn’t we ask you just to sent us an update on who had been reimbursed? I find everything else totally irrelevant. But if you want to play this game, fine with me: It was for exactly two weeks, from the 12th till the 25th August. You had already moved out by the time I arrived and I spent two weeks in your empty appartment, in the same conditions some interpreters had to live during their stay in Malmo (mattress on the floor, nothing I could use in the kitchen, only Sophie brought me some things from her place, no lights, I had to use candles!!!). Everyone knew (Francisco, probably the NOC) that I would arrive on that day in August, it was agreed three months before, from our meeting in May. We told that all coordinators arriving earlier to help would need a place to stay. It was the NOC’s responsibility. Even though, Sophie asked you if you wanted money from Babels’ budget for the time I would ’subrent’ your appartment. You refused when we asked you to make a contract, because you thought it seemed not so good to take money from the ESF as a treasurer. I never complained about the conditions there, nor did I want to stay at Sophie’s, and become a burden on her, but I have to admit that I was totally happy when I moved to the other appartment, given to us for free from a church and where I actually stayed with other babelistas till the end of the forum, and that was for a month. Anyway, thanks for everything you did for me, although I make different associations when it comes to ’hospitality’ and ’solidarity accommodation’. I don’t like the fact that you make us feel sorry for you or that you victimise . Did someone force you to take this responsibility? Or did you overestimate your strengh when committed to organize the 5th ESF?

This is what I would like you to answer and not that you had to pay for taxis to come to the travel agency and buy tickets for babels. I came a long way from Greece to help organizing this Forum. Did I ever hear any thank you from you or Francisco during or after the ESF? Anyway, you were making the decisions, according to your availability, when to meet me and buy the tickets. Because you couldn’t do it alone. Do you remember that you had problems with your visa?!?!!? And we thought that you were buying tickets but it wasn’t working!?!??!!? And that’s when I asked you and Francisco to find a travel agency to go and do the job properly, because we were all losing our time!?!?!?!?

I think you had no idea at all, and of course not only you, what it means to organize a forum. Did anyone ask us how many ours WE slept during the last 10 days of the ESF? Did any one from the NOC cared how many problems we had to deal with, problems that you and Francisco created? We knew exactly, I knew exactly, what it means to organize a forum, and despite this fact, I was willing to do this again because I believe in it. And that’s why I came to Malmo.

I’m sorry that you hadn’t chosen the right people to organize the 5th ESF, but, still, noone takes the responsibility for the total mess there. If you did spend 400SEK from your pocket for us - did anyone know about that? I didn’t - I propose that you ask the NOC to give you your money back. I’m sure there is enough money left from our budget. We also paid money from our pockets, but did we make it a big issue?!

I’m sorry to hear about your heart problems, but you were committed to do something and you obviously cannot. So, please, let someone else finish the work. And it’s your fault about this situation, because we had warned you from the very beginning, how difficult it is to reimburse so many people after the forum. You didn’t believe us, you didn’t pay attention to that. You chose the hard way. Personally, I don’t care if you are under pressure now or if you have a stressful life. I don’t care about your lifestory. We only asked you an update on the people already reimbursed. We are still waiting.

Maybe I’m still very angry with you(and the NOC) for letting the situation come to this point and I don’t mean only the reimbursement. I am still very dissapointed and sad.

Lina

***

Messages by Babels to Babels volunteers after November 3

These messages are UPDATES on the situation. They are added in chronological order, for the sake of transparency.

Nov. 4

Can you tell us whether you have been reimbursed for your travel costs? Thanks in advance for your help. To tell us, please go to this form:

[url address removed]

Eileen (interpreter at Babels) and Sophie (ESF) are meeting with members of the ESF finance group on Thursday 6th November to discuss reimbursement of interpreters. We hope to find a solution so that the interpreters get reimbursed as soon as possible.

We will continue to keep you informed of the progress of reimbursement. Babels email exchanges with ESF on the subject of reimbursement can be viewed online at: http://www.babels.org/article610.html

Nov. 12

Reimbursement for travel expenses; ESF Malmo

Dear ESF interpreters,

We (Babels) are writing to you again about the delays in the reimbursement of travel expenses for ESF Malmo by NOC (Nordic Organising Commitee: responsible for organising ESF 2008 and managing finances).

First, we would like to thank you for your continuing patience with this. We are trying hard to get the problems resolved, and to ensure you get your money. Please read this email carefully and respond where relevant for you.

1) Reimbursement, general

Last week we (Sophie, Eileen) met with representatives of NOC to find out why reimbursement has been held up, and were given the following reasons:

 Under-estimation of the time it takes to make transfers and only one person carrying out transfers
 Missing or incorrect bank details from interpreters
 NOC being unable due to technical/legals reasons to transfer money via paypal
 Delay in funds arriving on NOC account

Sophie and Eileen are meeting NOC again on Wed 12th November and will send another update.

2) You recently received an email from Babels network, asking you to let us know if you have received reimbursement.

If you have already replied, DO NOT REPLY again. If you have not replied, PLEASE REPLY here: [url address removed]

We are still waiting for replies from approx. 80 interpreters.

We are cross-checking the information received from the interpreters with that of NOC to ensure that interpreters have been paid.

*Please respond to this request by as soon as you can, and by Thursday 20th November if possible.*

3) Paypal/Bank transfers

NOC *cannot* reimburse you via paypal; for legal and technical reasons. We know this is a pain, but bank transfers are the best solution to this issue.

NOC needs the following information to reimburse you: Name
Address
Country
Phone number
Email address
Name of bank
Bank account number
IBAN
BIC/Swift code

NOC needs all these details. Please send these details to Sophie at interpretation@esf2008.org. She will pass on information to NOC. If you have any problems with providing the information, please email Sophie.

*Please send this information as soon as you can, if possible by Thursday 20th November.*

4) Partial reimbursements

We understand that some interpreters have so far only received partial reimbursement.

If you are one of these people, please send an email to interpretation@esf2008.org stating what money you received, and what money you should have received. Then NOC can pay the difference according to what was agreed during ESF 2008.

Thank you again.

Yours in solidarity Sophie (ex-coordinator NOC) Eileen and Fiona (interpreters at ESF Malmo)

Nov. 16

(please send message to whomever can help!)

Dear comrades,

Several volunteers of Babels participating in the Malmö ESF have not been reimbursed for their travel costs because the Nordic Organising Committee (NOC) in charge of the ESF is broke.

Babels left the ESF 08 in Malmo with a bitter and sad feeling, as many of you understood in the Assembly of the Social Movements when Babels was given the chance to read a statement regarding the situation and conditions in which we had to work during the ESF08.

Babels is encountering new problems with the NOC reimbursement procedures. The NOC publicly promised to reimburse travel expenses of the volunteer interpreters who took part in the Malmö nightmare. We left Malmö with a letter, signed by a member of the NOC board, where they committed to reimburse the interpreters before the 1st of October 2008.

Today, according to the figures we have received from the interpreters, 29% have not been reimbursed. Others have not been fully reimbursed.

On 12.11.08 Babels was told that there may not be enough funds to reimburse everyone, and that companies may be given higher priority over individuals in order to avoid bankruptcy which will lead to a incapacity to reimburse or pay anybody. That priority is however unacceptable since NOC has already promised 3 times to reimburse interpreters within a certain time and has never held its promises. Since NOC as a legal entity will cease to exist soon, interpreters will have to be prioritised by NOC, otherwise some interpreters could be left without reimbursement. This is unacceptable.

We are now studying future actions, and discussions are going on with the NOC to see how all the interpreters can be reimbursed.

We ask for your help and solidarity in this issue, as Babels is an important agent in the Forum process. We will appreciate your support in our contacts with the NOC and we ask you to take active part in the resolution of this problem. If you are a member of a ESF or WSF list, a member of an organisation that attended ESF2008 or any other relevant organisation, please circulate this message.

If interpreters do not receive reimbursement for Malmö, then Babels cannot participate in Istanbul (ESF2010).

Nov. 16

EN

NB: We need help from Babels interpreters in Malmö and Sweden if we are going to be able to get reimbursement for your Babels colleages. It is incredibly important that NOC and those supplying the finance understand that voluntary interpreters must be paid before companies!

If you want to and can help in any way, i.e. your are member of a trade union or other network, have knowledge of legal issues etc., get in touch immediately with Fiona, [email address removed].

Thank you for your solidarity.

Nov. 19

Sophie, myself and Gunilla (Swedish volunteer interpreter based in Lund) attended a meeting on 17.11.08 at ABF in Malmö. This meeting was also attended by:

 representatives of NOC (Nordic Organising Committee)
 representatives of ESF volunteers
 representatives of ESF cultural group
 representatives of ESF logistics group

There was a lot of frustration, because of organisational problems during ESF and the fact that ALL the volunteers are waiting for reimbursement.

What we learned:

1. companies will *not* be given priority over individuals

1. NOC has no intention of declaring bankruptcy , but any of their creditors can request it. As long as there is some real hope that funds will be raised, this will hopefully not happen.

1. NOC does not have enough money right now.

Action to be taken:

The minutes of this meeting will be presented as a report at the EPA (European Parliamentary Assembly) in Istanbul 21- 23 Nov. 08. This is to inform TC (Turkish committee) of what happened at ESF2008 and what needs to change. The financial situation OF NOC will be part of the report. This report will include concrete proposals for raising funds to pay everyone involved in ESF 2008

Gunilla has offered to translate this report from Swedish to English (I will help to revise). I propose that the EN version be sent to all interpreters to keep them informed.

At the end of the meeting, I did indeed feel more hopeful. People had expressed their frustration and were starting to look for solutions. I strongly suggest that Babels do the same.

Eileen (volunteer interpreter at ESF2008)

Nov. 20

Hi all!

First of all I want to thank you for answering the emails giving us the needed bank information and for all support even from reimbursed interpreters.

We are now completing your files, double checking that the amounts are the right ones etc. Then your files are going back to the desk of the responsible for the payments. As you might have understood by now time is a major issue.

For the ones who the last weeks have sent the bank information files are completed. I have sent mails today to check up some payments that some interpreters did not see on their accounts and sent mails to the persons who have not yet sent us the bank information we need.

We will check with printed bank information from the NOC that all payments that seems to have been done are correct ( amount, account etc...), and keep pressure on NOC to make sure that the reimbursements are made as fast as possible.

If necessary, I will check legal mesures, go to the press to put pressure on the organisations represented in the board, on trade unions, but I will not choose that optionas long as there are other ways of ensuring reimbursement.

We are a few "fresh" babelitas from Malmö still working on the reimbursement issue with the support of a few from the NOC as well. We still need all the goodwill possible.

A lot of promises were not kept, the whole organisation was a mess and very few took their responsabilities. It created a lot of violence towards volunteers before and during the forum and also towards employees etc.... and this is not acceptable, it has indeed been a hell working for this ESF during 10 months believe me!

I actually wanted to inform you by a more personal mail:

 what we are doing,
 to send you a great "Thank You" for your participation
 but also to tell you that if I am not answering emails concerning your anxiety or anger, or replies to the last email sent to you about reimbursement problems, it is only because my courage and energy is lacking. The little energy I have left I reserve for very concrete reimbursement issues.

I helped editing that last email to explain the financial situation, that’s it. That email was sent (by the magic of database) from my email-address wihout my approval. So answers to the later should probably be sent to Babels list or as discussions in Babels forum.

I am really sorry that everything went so wrong but I do hope that you anyhow could enjoy your stay in Malmö. And you all did a great job, trying to help out with interpretation with almost no technique what so ever, and in a great overall mess.

That is all for now.

Et la lutte continue...
In solidarity,
Sophie Sermage