UK Employment Law- Jury Service
I work in social care in Wales and have been with my current company 16 months, and recently completed jury service. My employer did technically give me the time off to attend court, but the way they handled the rota has left me questioning whether this was actually reasonable.
During the final week of jury service, I didn’t have a single full day away from either court or work. I worked the bank holiday Monday, attended court Tuesday to Friday, then worked through the weekend. So although I wasn’t physically at work during the court days, I still effectively went seven straight days without any actual downtime.
What annoyed me most was that I was originally supposed to be off on the Monday, but my day off was switched to the Tuesday instead — which was obviously a court day anyway. Because the court was closed on the bank holiday Monday, they moved my shift onto that day instead. It felt very much like they were rearranging things so they didn’t “lose” any staffing hours because of jury service.
To make things worse, the rota change notification was apparently sent to a work email account I currently can’t even access, so I didn’t realistically receive notice of the change.
I completely understand social care requires flexibility and I’m not someone who avoids shifts or expects special treatment. But the case itself was particularly harrowing and emotionally draining, and I had communicated that during the jury service period. Going straight from court into weekend shifts with no proper recovery time honestly left me exhausted mentally and physically.
I know jury service probably doesn’t count as working time under the regulations, so I’m not sure where I actually stand legally, but morally it just feels wrong. Has anyone else had employers basically rearrange all their shifts around jury service so they end up with no real break at all or does anyone have any advice on how I approach this with HR?