Coping with Jury Service loss of earnings

susiejq

My OH is a sub contractor and has been called for jury service. He had to give the chap he works for two weeks notice that he wouldn't be available to work for the next two weeks (starting on Monday 3rd Dec) and knew he would be getting a fraction of what he would normally earn as loss of earnings but was resigned to that.
However, on Friday afternoon he had a phone call to say he isn't needed on Monday and he has to phone after 4.30pm each day to find out if he is needed to attend the next day. This can go on for up to 2 weeks. He is livid. He can't work because his contractor can't set work up for him with just an hour's notice and yet, as far as we can see, he won't get any loss of earnings money either as he isn't actually serving. So for everyday this happens he earns nothing. How on earth can this be fair. We are a normal family, struggling to pay off our mortgage, put our daughter through Uni (no grant) and try and have a reasonable Christmas and his income is being taken away from him.
Surely this shouldn't be allowed to happen!:mad::mad::mad::mad:

missile

It isn't fair, the system sucks.

If he does get on a jury and the defendant is found guity his fine may be far less than the loss of wages borne by the jurors.

kermitfrog

Jury service can inherently involve sitting around for long periods doing nothing. A lot of potential jurors never actually see a trial. This is the nature of the beast, and part of our legal (and democratic) duty.

It is fair, because it applies to everyone equally.

Storck

Surely he should still be able to claim for loss of earnings as it is the same as him sitting in the court waiting room.

I'd recommend he checks with the clerk at the court before he decides he can not claim.

McKneff

I believe you can claim when you cant get into or are unable to carry out your normal duties.

Ring the clerk and confirm this.

pleasedelete

It is only about £65 a day do probably nothing like he would earn.

kermitfrog

You get paid whether you do any jury work or not.

pmduk

Jury service has always been unfair to the self-employed. I'm not suree of the solution, the right to trial by jury is surely an inalienable human right, even in Cameron's Britain.