Problems at work after returning from jury duty

steven2022

Hi, A friend of mine has recently came back from jury service (14 week trial) and he feels the managers are treating him less favourably by putting him on all the late shifts for a month! When he’s asked the manager to divide the shift patterns more fairly amongst a team of 3 the managers says “you’ve got to remember you’ve been on jury service” my friend said it’s not his fault that he was summoned to attend jury service and by declining it could be seen as a criminal offence or fine. Another senior manager also told my friend you “you could have told the court you wanted to be put on a 2 week trial instead of a 14 week” this was my friend first ever jury duty and he didn’t know if he can choose to be put on a shorter trial or not…he was shocked himself to hear on his induction he has been put in for a 14 week trial. He informed his employer immediately about this and they said they were going to get HR object to it but they never did in the end. My friend feels like an outsider at work and is on the verge of leaving due management keep throwing the “jury card” at him. Could anyone advise if there any steps he can take to legally fight back?

thanks

steven2022

Sorry, corrected the post title now.

JReacher1

14 weeks out of work would assume that his colleagues have had to do the unsociable shifts for the last three months. Would seem fair that he has to do them for the next month. 

I assume it will sort itself out in a few weeks. Personally I would recommend he keeps his head down and stops complaining. 

warby68

'Team' is the key word. If the team has had a rough time covering for 14 weeks, a good team player would recognize the fairness of paying them back a bit and not jump to what legal rights can be found as if he operates in a vacuum. 

Not knowing the ins and outs of Jury Service is also not really an excuse, it could have been researched beforehand. Again the friend probably needs to take a bit of responsibility.

Norman_Castle

I don't think jurors can select how long they will be there. If he was selected for a 14 week trial there would need to be a very good reason for this to be changed.

marcia_

warby68 said:

'Team' is the key word. If the team has had a rough time covering for 14 weeks, a good team player would recognize the fairness of paying them back a bit and not jump to what legal rights can be found as if he operates in a vacuum. 

Not knowing the ins and outs of Jury Service is also not really an excuse, it could have been researched beforehand. Again the friend probably needs to take a bit of responsibility.

 Responsibility for what? They had no control over what the Court orders! 

TELLIT01

The only way I see the company could be considered to be acting reasonably is if there is a shift allowance in payment and the OP's friend continued to receive that during jury service.  If the friend had been sick for 3 months would they have been treated the same way on return?

steven2022

TELLIT01 said:

The only way I see the company could be considered to be acting reasonably is if there is a shift allowance in payment and the OP's friend continued to receive that during jury service.  If the friend had been sick for 3 months would they have been treated the same way on return?

My friend said his employer only paid for the first 10 days of jury service… the remaining the court paid some of his earnings. 

Spendless

Prior to your friend's jury service was it usual for any staff member to do a month of late shifts? If it's only because your friend did Jury service that he has been put on this shift pattern then yes on the face of it it does seem he is being treated less favourably than colleagues. Hopefully someone will reply with more knowledge about it. 

steven2022

Spendless said:

Prior to your friend's jury service was it usual for any staff member to do a month of late shifts? If it's only because your friend did Jury service that he has been put on this shift pattern then yes on the face of it it does seem he is being treated less favourably than colleagues. Hopefully someone will reply with more knowledge about it. 

Prior to his jury service no one was usually put on this shift pattern. It’s was a mixture of lates & earlies divided up.

Cressida100

When I carried out Jury duty I was selected for what was likely to be a long trial. We had the opportunity to decline (which I did).