Can they force me to work weekends during jury duty???

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everyone,

I'm a Florida nurse who's employed full-time by a large hospital in the Ft. Lauderdale area. I've been called to Federal jury duty, and I've just been seated on a trial which the judge says will last for 3 weeks or longer. Naturally, I'm obligated to report to the courthouse Monday through Friday from approximately 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. throughout the course of the trial.

I informed my clinical manager about this last night and she wasn't very pleased. She also told me that if I'm scheduled to work during any weekends during my course of jury duty, that I would need to work those shifts. To me this seems outrageous and I'm feeling very exploited! Has this ever happened to anyone else? Does my employer have legal grounds to demand that I work these hours? Thanks!

It clearly states in her post that its 8:30-5pm. 8.5 hours, probably with a 30 minute lunch.

Ah, missed that. Then nope, she can't be forced to work overtime if the court's already got her for 40 hours. Hospital will have to fill in with someone else.

Let's not nit pick the hours!

Yes.. she won't be in court for 8 hours ( legal peeps rarely work a full day)

She is still called to jury duty for 8 hours.. and her facility is required to make up the jury duty pay to her hourly rate for 8 hours a day.

She is still called to jury duty for 8 hours.. and her facility is required to make up the jury duty pay to her hourly rate for 8 hours a day.

Is this true of Florida's laws? Or is it different for Federal court? Because in NYS, a juror is paid $40 per day, and IF an employer wants to kick in more, they can, but in no way are required to.

Is the law different because it's federal court?

I have no clue about Florida laws, federal court laws... The OP 's question is regarding the response of her facility.

Let's not get off track ..we need to support her position.

I'd definitely check with state laws. I have a hard time imagining that your employer can force you to work weekends while on jury duty. Yes, people get sick on the weekends, but she's not going on a tour of Europe, she's summoned to jury duty and employers are legally prevented from firing employees for serving. If employers are legally bound to respect jury duty, I would be surprised if they were allowed to require you to work in excess of 40 hours.

Specializes in med-surg, home health, dialysis, NICU-MB.
"Well, unfortunately, people get sick and need care at all times of the day and on all days of the week"

That is the mentality that got us into this mess.

OP has a government mandated FULL TIME commitment. Administration should NOT be allowed to force her to work overtime for THEIR needs!

I agree with you Been there, done that! Although people get sick 24/7, we as nurses shouldn't be compelled to work exceedingly long hours just because managers and administrators fall short of their obligation to adequately staff patient care units.

Yes, we all need to pitch in and do extra hours from time to time in order to help out when there's a pinch....but there comes a limit to what's safe and what's fair for each of us.

I've been a nurse for over 30 years, and during that time I've put in many, many extra hours and taken on many heavy loads when staffing was inadequate. It's really getting old now, and I just want what's fair.

Nurses tend to 'normalize' exploitation to the degree that they can't even recognize it when it happens. It's never going to change if we don't speak up and fight back when it occurs.

Call the damn clerk of court and get the answer so we can all stop fussing over this. I do hope you'll let us know what s/he says.

Specializes in med-surg, home health, dialysis, NICU-MB.

LOL Grn Tea...I promise I'll get some answers to this matter and post an update!

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I was working 2 non-nursing jobs when I was selected for jury dury. I ended up on a case that lasted a week. My day job gave me the time off, my night job adjusted my start time, but still expected me to be there.

The best thing to do is talk to HR, especially if there is any chance the jury will be sequestered, which means living in a hotel (at government expense), cut off from everything except family. I knew a woman who served on a grand jury for a murder trial; she was sequestered for 6 months. Fortunately, she was unemployed at the time.

The short answer is to ask a lawyer.

More to the point is that your boss can do whatever he/she wants usually, unless you want to take on a fight.

I'm puzzled that you have already been seated and didn't notify your employer of your required Jury service before this (it sounds like you didn't. If you did, I apologize).

Also, any employer I've ever heard of always puts people on Jury duty on a Monday through Friday schedule, including hospitals and nursing homes, other employers of nurses. I've never heard of anyone being required to work weekends while on JD. It's like forcing you to work overtime, seems to me.

If you don't have to report to Court on any particular day, or if you do report there but are let go for the day before your workday is up, you are supposed to report to the place you normally work. At least, this is what I've done myself and what others I've worked with have done for the last 45 years.

You should check with your employer's HR dept for their policies re: jury duty.

Good luck, hope it's interesting. As a juror, I believe you are free to disregard the law and vote your conscience. It's called Jury Nullification of the law. Google it. No, the judge will not tell you that jurors have that right, might even tell you you don't. Check it out.

I'm no expert, but I would think jury duty would be treated the same as military duty. Although when I go to serve my 2 weeks of Annual Training, I'm on military duty the whole 15 days straight, including the weekends. But, yes, I would think that OP's work shouldn't be able to force her to work the weekends during this 3 week trial. After all, at any time the judge can decide there's too much publicity about the case that might prejudice the jury or something like that and then sequester them.

I have no clue about Florida laws, federal court laws... The OP 's question is regarding the response of her facility.

Let's not get off track ..we need to support her position.

It's not really about supporting her, rather about what the rules are. Employers might or might not be required to let people off for jury duty and to make up the difference to the person's paycheck, but all employers I have known for the last few decades always allot anywhere from a few days to indefinite time periods for people to serve on JD.

I once heard a job make a self-employed person work JD. No one paid her. Who ran her biz while she served?

And another person told the judge her employer would only pay her for 3 days of service. Judge ordered her to be on a jury for a week-long case.

Go figure.

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