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!

So when you're sick in your days off, do you get Sick leave?

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So when you're sick in your days off, do you get Sick leave?

There's a big difference between sick leave and taking time off to perform your civic duty. We live in a society. The needs of the society transcend the needs of the staff scheduler at Xyz Hospital.

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For three weeks of his/her life, she will have to do 40hours in court and whatever her scheduled weekend is (which is likely one, possibly two weekends). Oh, the humanity.

Look, it's not going to be pleasant, but it's not the end of the world. And the fact is, her job only is required to compensate her for her work days that fall during jury duty days. I'm surprised it's such a shock, and that people are so worked up about it. What job compensates someone for a day that the worker wasn't supposed to be there to begin with?

It's three weeks. Most of us can look back to school and remember when we didn't bat an eye at working or going to school every single day with those precious days off as few and far between. It's not as if this is a permanent situation.

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Specializes in med-surg, home health, dialysis, NICU-MB.
So when you're sick in your days off, do you get Sick leave?

What does that have to do with anything Bluegrass?

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It seems, OP, realistically your options are to suck it up and work your scheduled weekend days, call in sick those days, or switch with a coworker for days that fall during the week while you are at jury duty.

Good luck.

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.
... I don't see the problem here.

Our biggest problem at times is the inability to realize there's a problem. :zombie:

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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. !

Seems as if some people have missed the major magic words in OP's post. FEDERAL JURY DUTY. I live in Florida and I served as a Federal Juror some years ago. While I served I WAS NOT allowed to work along with a ton of other things.

The best thing the OP can do is speak to someone at the court house and explain to them what is going on. Remember, this is Federal, not your local County and Federal does have a different set of rules.

Hope this helps and Thank You for doing your civic duty.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I'm seriously looking forward to hearing this outcome! Most judges have no sense of humor when it comes to the integrity of their court.

You need to express concerns to the court clerk and/or judge about the quality of the service you would provide if you are forced to work/serve for possibly 12 days in a row (if you serve M-F then have to work Sat/Sun then serve again M-F).

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

Thanks SouthernPoint! The only restrictions that the judge mentioned were not to discuss the details of the case with anyone and not to try to research anything about the case online. Nothing was mentioned about working or not working on my off days. He seems like a real stickler about the rules, so if the Federal Court had an objection to me working at all....I know he would have mentioned it.

I'm going to try to get more clarification from my HR dept. tomorrow.

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You can get exemptions from jury duty with a letter from your DON or CN.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.
You can get exemptions from jury duty with a letter from your DON or CN.

Doesn't mean a judge will honor an exemption letter. I can't even imagine what the letter would say "please excuse x as she is a nurse and I need her to work for me and take care of sick people." I personally think exemptions should be exceptions to the rule, and not something every person called for jury duty should be attempting to get

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OP I've been following this thread and I agree with you. Even though I tried to get out of it the first time I called I was selected to serve. And my job took me off the schedule for the whole week. My weekend included. The second time I was called for jury duty I was very vocal and I was excused but the prosecuting attorney didn't want me dismissed because I was a nurse. Long story short the judge dismissed me because of my extreme ( though very true that I feel this way) views on the case. And again I was taken off the schedule for the week. There is no way I would want to technically work five 8 hour days, two 12's then another five 8 hour days. How would you be able to function and give the person a fair trial?

Plus to me jury duty was stressful because both were criminal and I feared for my own safety.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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