My employee has jury duty. What do I do?

Ah, jury duty! Everyone’s favorite civic responsibility. Codified in our founding documents as the only mandatory constitutional duty for individual citizens, about 32 million Americans are summoned for jury duty every year. As an employer, you have a legal responsibility to ensure your employees are available to fulfill this obligation—but what exactly does that mean?

Although the selection process for jury duty generally takes a day or two, if selected, your employee could be required to serve on a jury for several weeks, or even months. Without a proper plan in place, this can be disruptive for any organization.

In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the federal and state regulations that govern time off and compensation for employees serving jury duty. We’ll also give you tips for putting a communication plan in place to let your employees know what they should do if they receive a summons letter.

Am I Legally Required to Allow My Employees to Report for Jury Duty?

Short answer? Yes.

 

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