Jury and Witness Duty

Spelman encourages employees to fulfill their civic responsibilities by serving jury or witness duty when required. Regular full-time employees may request up to 21 days of paid jury duty leave over any 1-year period.

Jury Duty

Jury duty pay will be calculated on the employee's base pay rate times the number of hours the employee would otherwise have worked on the day of absence.

If employees are required to serve jury duty beyond the period of paid jury duty leave, they may use available vacation benefits or may request an unpaid jury duty leave of absence.

Employees must show the jury duty summons to their supervisor as soon as possible so that the supervisor may make arrangements to accommodate their absence. Of course, employees are expected to report for work whenever the court schedule permits.

Either Spelman or the employee may request an excuse from jury duty if, in Spelman's judgment, the employee's absence would create serious operational difficulties.

Spelman will continue to provide health insurance benefits for the full term of the jury duty absence. Employees must continue to pay their portion of any applicable premiums. After paid jury duty leave has been exhausted, employees are free to use any available vacation leave to receive compensation for the period of this absence.

The employee will not be required to surrender any payments received from the courts.

Witness Duty

Spelman encourages employees to appear in court for witness duty when subpoenaed to do so.

If employees have been subpoenaed or otherwise requested to testify as witnesses by Spelman, they will receive paid time off for the entire period of witness duty.

Non-exempt employees will be granted unpaid time off to appear in court as a witness when requested by a party other than Spelman. Exempt employees will be paid pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act. If work is performed for any part of the day, exempt employees will receive pay for the entire day. If an entire day is missed it may be charged to vacation time. All employees are free to use any available vacation leave to receive compensation for the period of this absence.

The subpoena should be shown to the employee's supervisor immediately after it is received so that operating requirements can be adjusted, where necessary, to accommodate the employee's absence. The employee is expected to report for work whenever the court schedule permits.

Policy No.  311  Effective Date:  9/1/2000  Revision Date:  6/1/2002