jury service+work

opstrat

opstrat

opstrat

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Joined
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glasgow
after reading Dj_Jestar post about returning to the court, i remberd i have jury duty the start of next month.

i started a new job about 3 months ago so i really didnt need this but anyway.

my boss does not have a clue what the procedure is whe it comes to time off etc. its the 1st time he has had someone in his section go on jury duty. he said he will speak to his boss and get back to me.

my problem is in the work we have 2 shifts 12pm-8pm and 8pm-4am.
i have a strange feeling that the boss is going to put me down for the night shift. so ill be at court at 9am after coming home from work at 5am.

can he do this?

also i read the company handbook and when it comes to pay, for every day im there the company will deduct my pay for the amount that i can claim back from the court.

what are peoples thaughts on this.

cheers
 
My thoughts are that you should not be out of pocket for any of it and also they would not want you on it if it involved turning up with 2 hours sleep before.
 
I'm pretty sure that you can't be made to work overnight and then appear in court a few hours later.

If you are asked to do this then let the usher (person assigned to look after your group) at court know and they will contact your company for you. They will put a stop to it believe me!

Of course that won't necessarily make your employer happy with you when you do return to work...

The court will pay you whatever you would have earned at work (up to a certain amount I believe) so you won't lose out providing you hand in your paperwork on time - they remind you so you'll be ok. You will also get a lunch allowance which you can keep if you don't spend it - at least we were allowed to.

p.s. I really didn't want to do jury service but I loved it. If only I could become a full time juror
 
It is your responsibility to make sure you are in fit state to serve on a jury (eg no partying the night before and coming in hungover). So there's no way you could work until 4am before a day in court, and if your employer tried to "make" you I'm sure the court would take a very dim view of it. Your employer could put you under pressure to come in on that shift, perhaps only for a few hours, but you'd be perfectly within your rights to remind them of your legal duty to be in court, refreshed, to serve.

The problems for night workers come when you're not put on a jury panel and are sent home for a day or two (sometimes even more). But in your case you'd be able to go into work as normal during the day until the court required you back.

The money side sounds pretty good to me; they don't have to pay you anything while you're being compensated by the court.
 
Some 30 years ago, I failed to attend jury service, due to a m/c accident & was in hospital, had two coppers & some court bods come to the hospital & exercise a warrant for my arrest for failing to attend.
After a row with the matron,they had to leave empty handed.
 
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I presume you also get quite a lot of notice when you are called up?

In which case, the Manager of your business should have been able to find temp cover if you are a person they rely on.
 
Feek said:
When I did mine a few years ago, my employer just paid me as per normal.
Click to expand...

Ditto but they don't HAVE to. It's like full sick pay vs statutory sick pay - i.e. discretionary vs compulsory.
 
You are prohibited from doing night work whilst on Jury service.

Just remember - as grim as it seems, the law is on YOUR side for this. Your employer is not allowed to hold your jury service against you in any shape or form - including missed payrises, missed opportunities for payrises, etc.
 
cant you decline jurury service without a reason one time in your life?

i got called up about 10 years ago and there was an option to decline it the one time
 
You have the option to decline it once (for a good enough reason) but also check your home insurance as some policies also cover you for jury service and loss of earnings. I made a claim the last time I had to go.
 
Take a look at direct gov and it's article about rest breaks. The one that would apply to you would be the section on the 11 hours between shifts that's required before you work again. Assuming Jury service counts as work which I think it does then it would be illegal for your boss to make you work nights.
 
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