Jury Duty Help ?

mrsc25

Been called for Jury Duty and in a bit of pickle with it.

I`m a shift worker, work 4-10pm, Monday to Friday and my employer is stating that providing I finish before 4 o`clock, I still need to come to work every evening ?

Anyone have any ideas ?

Caffca

You wouldn't be entitled to anything other than normal expenses allowed for jurors assuming you met criteria for that e.g. travelling expenses today because you haven't lost any earnings.

You do not get paid for jury service - it is a civic duty. If your earnings are affected, you can claim for loss of earnings but you will only get what you lost, you are not entitled to profit from performing a civic duty.

ETA: It might be worth speaking to ACAS but purely from a working time regulation - rest period point of view. All workers are entitled to an 11 hour rest period between shifts however am not sure if even though you are doing jury service this would affect that or not. If it does, then you may have a reason for not attending work, irrespective of what time you finish but I wouldn't guarantee this and nor would I advocate just not turning up for work - you would need to speak to your employer about it first.

Oldernotwiser

mrsc25 wrote: »

Today for example, been to court for 9am, case was adjourned until tomorrow, so in theory, wasnt actually due any wages for my time spent at court (11am).

Why would you expect to receive anything for a time when you wouldn't have been working?

MrsManda

If you still work the shifts you'd be working if you didn't have jury service there is no loss of earnings for neither you nor your employer. Your wages will still be paid by your employer because you are still working your normal shifts.
If there is a loss of earnings on your part, you can claim them back from the jury service. If your employer has to employ someone else to cover your shifts because you cannot work them they may be entitled to claim back those costs.

A list of expenses etc... which can be claimed under certain circumstances can be from on jury service website: HERE

pinkshoes

You can claim your travel expenses for every day you go in, and they give you a lunch budget.

As you finish work at a reasonable time (10pm), then you can't really argue that you'd be deprived of sleep, as you usually don't have to be in court until 9.30am, to plenty of time for 8 hours of sleep!

I'd just go into work as normal when you're finished in court, and if you're late and miss some hours, claim them from the court.

Think of poor retired people who have to give up their daily bingo to go to court each day!

Andy_L

Digging around the internet, shift work is a, possible, reason for deferral or excusal from Jury service. There should be contact details on your info pack so give them a call.

"Applications for excusal by shift workers and night workers should be dealt with
sympathetically. A shift worker should be deferred to a period where they do not
have to attend on a rest day."

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/other/9780108508400/9780108508400.pdf

Weirdlittleman

Andy_L wrote: »

Digging around the internet, shift work is a, possible, reason for deferral or excusal from Jury service. There should be contact details on your info pack so give them a call.

"Applications for excusal by shift workers and night workers should be dealt with
sympathetically. A shift worker should be deferred to a period where they do not
have to attend on a rest day."

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/other/9780108508400/9780108508400.pdf

This would be imo someone working til early am time or whose shifts varied so they couldnt commit

Not for a shift worker who can perform it no bother but simply doesnt like it or the fact they arent being paid for it.

Caffca

Andy_L wrote: »

Digging around the internet, shift work is a, possible, reason for deferral or excusal from Jury service. There should be contact details on your info pack so give them a call.

"Applications for excusal by shift workers and night workers should be dealt with
sympathetically. A shift worker should be deferred to a period where they do not
have to attend on a rest day."

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/other/9780108508400/9780108508400.pdf

If you want to defer your jury duty, it has to be done before you attend court on your first day i.e when you first receive your summons to attend. It can't be arranged when you have already started.

I've had to deal with a few employees recently being called to jury and they are sent an information pack which explains how to defer; what expenses they can claim and how to claim loss of earnings. The OP obviously had this pack as they gave the loss of earnings form to their employer to complete as is required as that has to be submitted on the first day they attend.

It does sound to me (and I could be wrong as they haven't responded to any posts) that the OP thought that they would be able to profit from this - i.e. go to jury, get paid for that and then get paid for working as well or even not go to work and get paid - perhaps she works for one of the generous employers that pay you when on jury duty even though there is no statutory entitlement to it.

Savvy_Sue

One of the questions for the employer is whether the employee will still be able to work part days or full days when they are not required - obviously in some jobs you need to know you've got cover, whereas for most of my colleagues we could just turn up at the office if we had a free day or half-day.

Presumably the employer has said "yes they can work as long as they're here by 4 pm" but there probably will be some days when you won't get there in time. The court won't pay for loss of earnings if it doesn't appear you'll have any.

However, if you've been concentrating in court all day it seems a bit unreasonable to expect you to then work a 6 hour shift afterwards. Not to mention when you deal with the rest of 'life'.

I would also contact ACAS to ask what's 'reasonable'.

Andy_L

Weirdlittleman wrote: »

This would be imo someone working til early am time or whose shifts varied so they couldnt commit

Not for a shift worker who can perform it no bother but simply doesnt like it or the fact they arent being paid for it.

Perhaps, but is a juror who's put in a full days work as well as a full days jury-ing (plus travel) in the same 24hr block going to be an effective juror (I suspect nodding off would be contempt of court)? Unless you ask you don't know