Employees in Indiana who are called to serve on a jury are often worried about how the service will affect their jobs. Although serving on a jury could potentially result in days or weeks away from work, employers are not allowed to retaliate against their employees for serving on a jury. An employer may not lay off an employee, take away the employee’s health insurance or penalize the employee for jury duty in any other way.
Employees are generally required to give their employers reasonable notice that they have received a jury summons. In some cases, employees must provide proof of the jury duty summons before they are allowed to take the time off from work. If an employer is found guilty of penalizing a worker for jury duty, the employer could face fines and even imprisonment.
Employers have no legal obligation to pay their workers for jury duty, but many employers do anyway. According to a survey that was conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 87 percent of employers around the country offer their workers paid leave for the time that they spend serving on a jury. Jurors may also be compensated for their time with a daily stipend that is provided by the court.
A worker who has been fired or had their hours cut back after serving on a jury might have a case for filing an unpaid wage claim against their employer. An attorney may be able to help a worker in this situation to seek compensation for back wages and benefits that they lost due to their employer’s disregard for employment laws.
Source: FindLaw, “Jury Duty and an Employee’s Right to Pay”, accessed on March 6, 2015
