Discipline for absence related to court subpeona

[Chitowngurl]

We have an employee who was witness to a crime and has been called to testify in court.
They have used up all paid leave time for this year.
This is not covered under our Jury duty policy.

In addition to taking an unpaid day off the person in question is being written up for an unexcused absence even though it is not an absence by choice.

Has anyone ever had something like this occur and how did you handle it?

 

[cbg]

Legally, I believe you are within your rights to handle it this way.

Morally and ethically, shame on whoever decided to punish her for honoring the law and doing her civic duty

 

[cynthiag]

Morally and ethically, shame on whoever decided to punish her for honoring the law and doing her civic duty

I agree! Our jury duty policy includes witness duty...perhaps it's time to consider making a change to your jury duty policy to include other types of court subpoenas.

 

[ElleMD]

Legal but I'd consider whether this was known well in advance and the employee failed to plan to have leave for it or not. I wouldn't write someone up for obeying a subpoena but if the issue is really a lack of notice or not using leave appropriately, that is worth addressing.

 

[adjusterjack]

We have an employee who was witness to a crime and has been called to testify in court.
They have used up all paid leave time for this year.
This is not covered under our Jury duty policy.

In addition to taking an unpaid day off the person in question is being written up for an unexcused absence even though it is not an absence by choice.

You'd have to be a real scumbag of an employer to discipline an employee for this.

 

[ferretrick]

Assuming you run on calendar year, I don't usually have a lot of sympathy for someone who has exhausted all their leave by July barring some exceptional circumstances, if your company provides a decent PTO package to begin with. So making the time unpaid doesn't bother me. The discipline for complying with a court order does seem excessive.

 

[Betty3]

This is the closest I could find: Court appearance Il.

An employer may not discharge, threaten, or otherwise punish an employee because the employee is subpoenaed to testify as a witness in a criminal proceeding. Violation of this provision is considered contempt of court (IL Comp. Stat. Ch. 725 Sec. 5/115-18).

 

[cbg]

Just to clarify - I was referring to the write up. I don't have a problem with the time being unpaid either.

 

[Chitowngurl]

Thank you for your responses, just to clarify.
We are on a calendar year. She had 3 weeks of paid time available as of January 1st which she had used prior to the end of June. she already used at least 1 day over her allotted time, this would be her second day over her allotted time.

It has already come up about possible modifying the Jury duty/policy but that hasn't happened yet.

 

[cbg]

As I said, I have no problem with the time being unpaid.

I stand by the rest of my answer.

 

[CdwJava]

This is the closest I could find: Court appearance Il.

An employer may not discharge, threaten, or otherwise punish an employee because the employee is subpoenaed to testify as a witness in a criminal proceeding. Violation of this provision is considered contempt of court (IL Comp. Stat. Ch. 725 Sec. 5/115-18).

I think this may well settle the issue of discipline. I think the question then becomes whether or not unpaid time for court is considered "punishment?"

Personally, I'd think the court could easily see her being penalized by unpaid time to comply with a court order (which would be a CRIME to disobey) as being in violation of this section.

 

[ferretrick]

This page from Cook County: http://www.cookcountycourt.org/FORJURORS/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx states that employers do not have to pay people on jury duty but has the same basic cannot punish, coerce, etc. language regarding jury duty. I think it's safe to assume the same principle applies to witness duty-the time doesn't have to be paid, but the employee cannot be disciplined, etc.

 

[ElleMD]

To clarify, I wouldn't write her up for the being a witness, but if this is something she has known about for months and simply failed to plan for, that is something worth addressing. Same if she had advanced notice but waited until the last minute to request the day off. Why she needs this particular day is not the issue but lack of notice and planning are. If this was a recent development and she didn't know she would need the day off until now, I'd just grant it as unpaid which is not a penalty as FLSA allows for this. It is one day.

 

[Betty3]

Here is the actual law re jury duty (though jury duty is not the case here but jury duty was brought up in thread)

Illinois: Employers must give employees time off for jury duty when given reasonable notice of required service. Employers may not deny employees time off for jury duty because they are assigned to the night shift. Employers may not discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce any employee because of jury service. Employers aren't obligated to compensate employees for time off taken for jury duty. 705 IlCS 305/4.1 and 705 ILCS 310/10.1

Actual law re witness service -
Illinois: Employers may not discharge, threaten, or otherwise punish employees who are witnesses to crime because of time lost resulting from subpoenaed appearance at criminal proceedings. Employers aren't required to pay employees for that time lost. State law also prohibits discrimination or harassment against individuals who attend, participate in, or prepare for criminal or civil court proceedings relating to domestic or sexual violence in which the employee or a family or household member was a victim or who requested leave for such spouse. 725 ILCS 5/115-18 and 820 ILCS 180/30