Civil duty time off
Last updated: September 22, 2023
This page applies to all staff and student employees.
All staff and student employees may take time off from work to:
- Serve on jury duty
- Serve as a trial witness
- Exercise other subpoenaed civil duties
Pay
Employees in regular contract covered, classified, and professional staff positions receive their regular pay while on civil duty time off. Employees in nonpermanent classified non-union positions, nonpermanent fixed-duration positions represented by SEIU 925 and fixed term professional staff project positions are also eligible for paid civil duty time off.
You do not get paid civil duty time off for legal actions that you initiate or that name you as a defendant in a private legal action unrelated to your University employment.
Other compensation
You may keep any compensation that you receive for fulfilling your civil duty, such as jury pay or travel expense reimbursement, unless your collective bargaining agreement states otherwise.
Civil duty time off during probationary or trial service period
While you are eligible to take civil duty time off during your probationary or trial service period, your probationary or trial service period lengthens by the number of civil duty time off days you take.
Notification
Notify your manager and provide a copy of the jury duty summons or subpoena as soon as reasonably possible after receiving your notice of civil duty.
- For campus staff: Follow your department’s usual request procedures and make the appropriate time off request in Workday.
- For medical centers staff: Follow your department’s usual request procedures.
Return to work
When you return from civil duty, you must report your actual time taken for this time off in Workday (campus) or in Kronos (medical centers).
Manager responsibilities
As a manager, you should:
- Process civil duty time off requests according to your department’s usual approval procedure. You may ask the employee to request a civil duty deferral from the court only if the time off will create a significant hardship for departmental operations.
- Place copies of the employee’s jury summons or subpoena and your written approval in the employee’s departmental file to support entries made in the time off tracking system (Workday or Kronos). Retain these records for 3 years after the employee’s termination of employment with the department.
- Adjust the employee’s work schedule and your department’s staffing schedule as needed, or as required by the employee’s collective bargaining agreement.