Jury Duty

SWVEMS encourages employees to fulfill their civic responsibilities by serving jury duty when required. Employees in an eligible classification may request up to 2 weeks of paid jury duty leave over any 2 year period.

Jury duty pay will be calculated as the difference between the employee's base pay rate times the number of hours the employee would otherwise have worked on the day of absence and any compensation received for serving jury duty. Employee classifications that qualify for paid jury duty leave are:

* Regular full-time employees

* Introductory full-time employees

If employees are required to serve jury duty beyond the period of paid jury duty leave, they may use any available paid time off (for example, vacation benefits) or may request an unpaid jury duty leave of absence.

Employees must show the jury duty summons to their supervisor as soon as possible so that the supervisor may make arrangements to accommodate their absence. Of course, employees are expected to report for work whenever the court schedule permits.

Either SWVEMS or the employee may request an excuse from jury duty if, in SWVEMS's judgment, the employee's absence would create serious operational difficulties.

Paid time off and holiday benefits will continue to accrue during unpaid jury duty leave.

Policy No.  311  Issued  5/1/2007  Applicable  5/1/2007