[JUSTICE] JURY SERVICE – INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYERS
If one of your employees has been summoned for jury service, here’s what you need to know.
Talk with your employee about:
- when they need to go to jury service
- how long the trial might last. This information may be contained in the juror summons letter they receive. Some trials might be longer, depending on the court case.
If your employee isn’t selected for jury service, they’re free to go back to work. This means they may only be away from work for a few hours during that week.
If your employee is selected to be on a jury, they may be away from work for only part of the week, the whole week, or longer than a week. The length of time they’re away from work will depend on the court case.
Your legal obligations
The law says you must let your employee do jury service. If there’s too much work on, they can ask the court to defer (put off) their service until a later date as long as it’s within one year. You’ll need to write a letter that your employee can show to the court when they ask to defer their service.
Paying your employee while they do jury service
Some employers make up the difference between a juror’s attendance fee and the employee’s normal rate of pay. This means your employee doesn’t lose money because they do jury service.
However, it’s not a legal requirement to do this (unless it’s specified in an employment agreement).
Reference: https://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/jury-service/check-placeholder/
Penny Varley
Payroll Administrator