MELBOURNE – A year-long pay dispute between Melbourne’s Magistrates Court and Vietnamese language interpreters has finally been resolved.

The dispute arose when the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court changed hiring practices that effectively lowered full-day rates from $280 dollars to $210 dollars.

About 17 Vietnamese court interpreters stopped accepting bookings from the court for about eight months following the changes.

The Age reports that this left non-English speaking Vietnamese people facing criminal charges, in custody for more than a month because there were no interpreters available.

Earlier this year, the court began hiring interpreters at the lower rate through an agency.

It said that the new system was a better compared to the ad hoc way court staff sourced interpreters previously.

During the dispute, one Vietnamese translator representing the group of court interpreters established her own language services agency which paid the previous rate of $280 dollars.

The dispute was eventually resolved in late November, after the court agreed to book Vietnamese translators at their former pay rate through the newly established agency.

– TiVi Tuan-san