Human Resource Blog

Employee Rights and Jury Duty

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Regarding employees that must serve jury duty, what are the rights that my employees have?

According to the Jury Systems Improvement Act (JSIA), a federal Act that oversees the way employers treat employees that have to serve on jury duty, employees may not be terminated, disciplined, or otherwise punished if they have to serve on jury duty. This Act is also supported by federal and state laws, so no matter what state your company is in, you must allow your employees to serve on jury duty without punishment or threat of punishment.

Here is a brief overview of the rights that you and your employees have with regards to jury duty and the JSIA:

Employee Rights

You cannot terminate your employees or discipline your employees in any way if they serve on jury duty.

If you do discipline your employees, then those employees have the right to sue you for back wages and for other penalties, such as benefits and legal expenses.

If an employee needs to leave work to serve on jury duty, then the company should consider the employee has having taken a leave of absence. The employee should be able to come back to work without losing benefits, bonuses, or any seniority.

If an employee has been called away for jury duty, that employee should still be kept on the payroll and there should be no change in his or her benefits.

Remember: as an employer, if you are found to be in violation of any of these conditions of the JSIA, then you should be fined up to $1,000 per incident, per employee. You will also have to pay reasonable legal fees for your employee as well as the back wages for that employee and any benefits that the employee may have missed out on, such as healthcare benefits, bonuses, or seniority positions with the company. You may also have to reinstate the employee that had to serve jury duty if you discharged him or her as a result of the jury duty obligation.