Jury Pay for Per Diem (or Casual) Employee

2802263

I have a per diem employee just hired in July worked 4 weeks and called to Jury Duty. Our policy and practice only pays employees for time if you are "regular" full or part time employee. We are in Massachusetts and I'd like to review the employer's obligation to pay to make sure we are in compliance with our policy and to get input on practice in this area. As a health system, we have a large per diem work force.
Thank you!

Betty I_O

We also use per diem employees, who do not have scheduled hours but are called as needed. They have the right to refuse work when offered, but have to
maintain a recorded minimun of 24 hours per month. (If an employee is called three times, and they refuse work, they may be removed from the per diem roster.) They do not accrue vacation, holiday, personal, or sick time, but do receive shift, weekend, or holiday differentials, if applicable. No other benefits are available to per diems. Our policy was reviewed within the last year for the very same reason and was not changed.

Pork

I would think you would want to read your policy and pay strictly by the terms of your policy. If you do not specifically have your perdiem employees excluded, you might want to produce an amendment to clarify the issues and then publish it to all employees. Per diem employees are similar to our contract labor employees, which are hired for limited on call work activities and are paid according to a set agreed to amount of money regardless of the time. I just make sure that the agreed to amount of money and time is greater than $5.25 per hour.

PORK