Ever get screwed over through Jury Duty?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I did, though I admit it was mostly my own fault.

At my job, for every quarter you work and get perfect attendance, you are awarded a bonus vacation day the following year. The conditions for earning these days are very strict- Even if you get excused leave ahead of time for something like a doctor’s appointment, or you need time off due to FMLA reasons (sick kid, elder care, etc) it disqualifies you for this bonus day. In short, you gotta have perfect attendance AND be lucky.

I had Jury Duty scheduled this month, and I was careful to ask ahead of time if it would affect earning a bonus vacation day. The office said no, if I had to serve in Jury Duty it wouldn’t penalize me. I would be paid for the day served and have to let my employer know when I was dismissed from Jury Duty.

It turned out I was on ‘callback’ that day. I didn’t think to ask what my work wanted me to do if I was on callback because amazingly this is the first time I’ve actually had Jury Duty (previous summons happened when I was a student). I figured since they may need me at any time during the day, I should stay at home in case they needed me. I’m a bus driver, and it didn’t make any sense that I would have to drop what I was doing, wait for the dispatcher to send a relief driver to get me, drive all the way back to the bus yard, get my car, and drive in the next county (where I live) to go to court. Being home I was closer and less likely to miss it.

Well, it turned out I was wrong :mad: I got penalized for missing a day because according to my work, I didn’t actually SERVE on a Jury that day, which is the only way they would excuse me. Since I didn’t think to ask what to do if I was on callback, I didn’t know that we do in fact have to report to work, and if I call back and they need me to serve on a Jury later that day, yep, I gotta drop what I’m doing and haul ass two counties over to go serve. I debated it with my boss, who finally compromised and excused me for the day (in regards to attendance). However, apparently this ‘excused leave’ doesn’t fall under the same category as ‘served Jury duty’ for the purposes of bonus vacation days, so not only did I not get paid for the day, I lost out of getting the bonus day- three more weeks of good attendance and I would’ve gotten it too.

What had further confused me was at my wife’s former job (who also works for the county) they were extremely generous- when she had Jury Duty they paid her even when she was on callback. While on callback she was excused from work- she only had to go back to work when the court said they didn’t need her at all anymore. I had mistakenly thought my job was the same, but apparently they are not :frowning:

2

Almost. My HR manager tried to make me take a non-medical leave of absence for a six week trial (that ran almost ten weeks) that began in January. She said that after the trial, I would then submit the time served and be paid my weekly hours, but I would lose my insurance and other benefits, and would have to wait until October for open enrollment. In addition, due to the time missed, I would forfeit my full-time status and lose vacation and personal time for the next calendar year. Something didn’t pass the sniff test, and I called home office for clarification. Turned out that she was completely wrong, I was to be paid as if I was working 40 hours a week by turning in time adjustment forms and calling in to HR occasionally to let them know the progress of the trial. No benefits were to be lost. Went back to work to do the paperwork, and the HR manager attempted to have me formally disciplined for going over her head. Called home office from her own phone, and she yelled at me loudly during my pleasant discussion with the HO folks… until she finally hung up the phone in the middle of my talk with them. They called back pretty quickly for the HR manager. Much yelling ensued, and she was red-faced and shaking when the call ended, then slammed the phone down, grabbed my paperwork to process it, and told me to never ever go above her again, and she still swore that she was correct and that she was going to make sure I was fired for my “time theft.”

Turned out home office became very interested in just how HR had been run after that and began an investigation while I served. Turns out she’d caused multiple employees to improperly lose benefits through similar machinations, and they uncovered a copious amount of her own personal time theft… so she was gone when I returned. :slight_smile:

That said, of the 14 people on my jury, I was one of only two who received their pay while serving, at least two lost their jobs for shady reasons, and one lady who ran her own business ended up having to close down shop.

3

Cool.

Bummer.