Jury service and holiday entitlement

[Pressman]

Can anyone help?
I have an employee out on jury service and have been informed they could be away for three months (long trial).
Does anyone know if they continue to accrue holiday entitlement while they are away from work?

 

[ethical PR]

I can't see why they wouldn't, but check with your HR person or perhaps ACAS

 

[digthecat]

ethical PR are correct - check with ACAS or you can call the jury service people themselves. From memory it's the employee who ends up taking the hit, if the case does run on, as they're only entitled to basic compensation. You can also write to the jury service people to request your employee is excused, if you can show the business would suffer without them if it were to go on for an extended period (or at least that's my understanding).

 

[ethical PR]

But he isn't asking about what the employee gets paid or getting out of doing it, he's specifically asking about holiday pay.

 

[digthecat]

Apologies - my understanding is they do not accrue extra holiday/aren't entitled to pay from you, but you'll need to check if they're still entitled to normal allowance (I suspect they would be even if not working). There is a government link but it doesn't clarify on that point specifically so check with ACAS. May just come down to wording on employee's contract - if pay is discretionary, hols could be too?

 

[ADW]

I had someone go through Jury service recently and had assumed it was normal holiday accrual..... although it was just the 2 weeks. I believe they are not supposed to be worse off for having done it.

 

[Pressman]

Thanks for your replies. To clarify the employee has given notice to resign during the jury service and we are trying to calculate if they have accrued holiday during the time away from work.

 

[digthecat]

Ah okay - I'd definitely give ACAS a call - suspect it will come down to wording on contract.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Can anyone help?

I have an employee out on jury service and have been informed they could be away for three months (long trial).

Does anyone know if they continue to accrue holiday entitlement while they are away from work?

Yes, I believe they’ll be entitled to accrue leave during their absence. I don’t know of any case law that’s ever addressed the specific question, but the relevant law is s43M, Employment Rights Act 1996. The employee must not suffer any detriment due to being called for jury service (the right to pay during their time-off is excluded), and not providing leave that they would otherwise accrue seems like a clear detriment.



Karl Limpert

 

[Andrew Sweeney]

@Employment Law Clinic

If the member of staff has been on Jury service for an exceedingly long time does the employer have any right to deduct time taken off during the trail from the holidays accrued during the trail?
Would this be considered a detriment?

Thank you in advance

 

[Newchodge]

What do you mean by time taken off during the trial? If the trial were put off for a period the employee should return to work until it restarts.

In the same way, if someone is called for jury service and does not get picked for a trial that day, they are supposed to return to work for the remainder of the day.

 

[Andrew Sweeney]

What do you mean by time taken off during the trial?

Unfortunately due to the length of the trial some planned time off was scheduled. During this time the judge had instructed the Jury not to re-attend work for fears of the details of the trail being spread and for fears of fatigue for the jury. The Jury rarely chose when this time off and often and little to no notice of it.

 

[Newchodge]

As they were still under the control of the judge, they weren't on holiday, I would suggest.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Unfortunately due to the length of the trial some planned time off was scheduled. During this time the judge had instructed the Jury not to re-attend work for fears of the details of the trail being spread and for fears of fatigue for the jury. The Jury rarely chose when this time off and often and little to no notice of it.

That is extremely tricky to comment on. Given the fact they are receiving rest & recuperation (albeit under times directed by the judge), arguably this time could be considered leave - it meets the legal definition of leave, and the purpose of it - but given it's under the direct direction of the judge, and solely for the purposes of the hearing, I would expect this to count as part of the jury service.

Any outsider observing legal proceedings could think judges are lazy, work very short days, but I remember a judge reminding attendees that they have to be totally focused while hearing evidence/arguments, and they can't do that for the full length of a typical working day; a break of a day or more could arguably fall within the same description/for the same purpose - it's just a longer break between sittings.

I still don't believe case law exists on this specific question, but as Cyndy observes, they're still on jury service, still under the direction of the judge, and I don't think the employer could possibly start to "deduct" time for this.

(I'm sure directly or indirectly, employers have some means of relaying concerns/objections to their staff shouldn't be summonsed for lengthy hearings; if it's causing a problem, this is something that should have been considered when they knew of the summons. But if Andrew is the employee/jury member, perhaps there might be grounds to test the law, get that case law on the record...)


Karl Limpert

 

[Andrew Sweeney]

Thank you Karl and thank you Cyndy for your input