Jury Duty

Susan

My firm's written policy is that an employee will be paid for 10 days of jury duty service. I have an exempt employee who, by law, was mandated to serve more than 10 days. She had to serve 4 days a week and so was in the office 1 day a week. After the 10th day, the firm made her use her own vacation time. Towards the end of the year, because she had used up all accrued vacation, sick and personal time, she had to take days without pay to help her mother move to another state. Was, what the firm did, legal -- making her use her vacation time for jury duty service?

Dottie

Susan --

I don't know what state you are in, but in Kentucky it is my understanding that it is illegal to withhold compensation from an exempt employee for Jury Duty. As a matter of fact, we had to change our policy because of that.

Susan

Thanx for replying Dottie. I live in New York. Please bear in mind though at the actual time of jury duty, compensation was not withheld, but rather, using vacation time was forced on the person. So, I'm still not sure what was done, was legal.

tom

Susan-
It is my understanding as per FLSA rules, you can not deduct wages as a result of jury duty attendance. Therefore, you can not apply the time to earned vacation credits.
Hope this helps!

russell

FLSA says exempt EE cannot have PAY reduced for Jury Duty.
You are not reducing pay, you are reducing paid time off bank.
I believe your company is handling this legally. Note: if she
had exhausted PTO bank and still was missing four days per week
for jury duty, you would have to pay for those days (less anything
the court may pay her for her service).

Rockie

You cannot dock an exempt employee for jury duty, either paywise or vacation wise. You can offset what you pay them by the amount they get from the court or you can require them to turn in what the court gives them for service.

Susan

Thank you for your response. So, that means that what my firm did was wrong and illegal?

Rockie

This is not an uncommon "error" for an employer to make. I see it all the time. I would reinstate the employee's vacation time they were required to take.