Shift work and payment for Jury Duty.

RogerWilco1982

My employer is a large multinational fast food restaurant.

My shifts and hours are constantly changed and I am rarely given the same amount of hours from week to week. My shifts can vary from four hours in length to nine hours in length.


I was recently summoned and selected for Jury Duty.

It began on a Monday, and I was obliged to attend the courts every day, but I was not selected for a trial until the Thursday. The trial lasted a week and I was finished on the following Thursday.

The Court Clerk has given me a certificate of the days on which I was obliged to be in the courts, from the first morning of arrival, through to the last day of the trial when we gave our verdict.


With regard to payment the following legislation is relevant;

Juries Act, 1976;

Jury service by employees and apprentices.

29.—(1) For the purposes of any contract of service or apprenticeship or any agreement collateral thereto (including a contract or agreement entered into before the passing of this Act), a person shall be treated as employed or apprenticed during any period when he is absent from his employment or apprenticeship in order to comply with a jury summons.

(2) Any provision contained in any such contract or agreement shall be void in so far as it would have the effect of excluding or limiting any liability of the employer in respect of the payment of salary or wages to the employee or apprentice during any such absence.



Is my employer obliged to pay me for the days for which I was absent from work due to Jury Duty?

Does this mean he would have to pay me for 9 X 9 hour (full) days (my employer does not pay us for breaks)?

Or would he be obliged to pay me for an average week or some calculation of same?

I am almost certain that my employer will be difficult about this and I would like to know some facts before I (politely) approach him.

I welcome any input you may care to share.

SpaceTime

Actually, I've a question on that too.

A buddy of mine was called for jury duty and his employer threatened to fire him if he didn't make an excuse and get out if it!

Is that legal?

Thoie

RogerWilco1982 wrote: »

(2) Any provision contained in any such contract or agreement shall be void in so far as it would have the effect of excluding or limiting any liability of the employer in respect of the payment of salary or wages to the employee or apprentice during any such absence.



Is my employer obliged to pay me for the days for which I was absent from work due to Jury Duty?

Does this mean he would have to pay me for 9 X 9 hour (full) days (my employer does not pay us for breaks)?

Or would he be obliged to pay me for an average week or some calculation of same?

I am almost certain that my employer will be difficult about this and I would like to know some facts before I (politely) approach him.

I welcome any input you may care to share.

I couldn't swear to it, but if you normally do, say, 30 hours a week, then I'd expect to be paid for 30 hours a week while on jury duty. What are the minimum hours you ever do in a week?

SpaceTime wrote: »

Actually, I've a question on that too.

A buddy of mine was called for jury duty and his employer threatened to fire him if he didn't make an excuse and get out if it!

Is that legal?

No, his employer is acting the bollix. If the employer can't spare him (say it's a small 2 man company), then give that excuse to the court clerk. If it's a decent sized company, out of contrariness I'd probably tell the clerk that my boss threatened to fire me if I wasn't excused, and let the dice fall where they may. That's probably a good way to get fired though.

tatli_lokma

The only obligation would be to pay you for your contracted hours as they would be the only guaranteed hours you would have worked. You wouldn't get paid for 9 × 9 hours as you wouldn't have worked 9 days straight. You would be entitled to holiday accrual also but again only for the contracted hours. The only difference to this would be if they had rostered you on for additional hours to your contract that week and then you couldn't attend. But if you weren't rostered on they would only have to pay for your contracted hours. This is why many people in your situation would request to be relieved of their duty as they would lose income.