Jury Service

What is Jury Service?

The National Employment Standards (NES) say you have to give your employees time off for jury service. Jury service is the only form of community service leave that is paid. When employees take leave for jury service, they receive jury service pay from the government and employers then top this up to their usual pay for up to 10 days.

Topping up is only for permanent employees only and below is an example of how it works:

• your permanent employee earns a usual weekly base rate of, say, $700

• the government pays, say, $250 per week for jury service

• you top up their pay by $450

You can ask your employee for evidence they have taken steps to get the full amount of jury service pay and evidence of how much pay they received in the first two weeks. You do not have to pay community service leave for employees who are still doing jury service after 10 days.

If a state law provides for paid community service leave that is more generous than the NES, then the generous amount applies.

Peninsula can advise you on handling jury service. For peace of mind, please call our 24-hour Advice Line now on 1300 651 415.