If Your Time is Short
Main Highlights of Jury Duty in NYC:
- If your business has more than 10 employees, you are REQUIRED to pay your employee $40 a day for up to 3 days. Anything more than that and the responsibility falls to the state.
- It is ILLEGAL to force an employee to use PTO and/or sick leave to go to jury duty. However, an employee is free to elect to do so. This does not waive your obligation to pay $40 a day.
- You cannot force an employee to come in and work a late shift after jury duty to make up for lost time.
Main Highlights of Voter Leave in NYC:
- Your employees are eligible for a maximum 2 hours of paid time off to vote if they don’t, “have sufficient time to vote”. Sufficient time to vote is defined as having 4 consecutive hours to vote from the opening of the polls to the beginning of your employee’s shift, or 4 consecutive hours from the end of their shift until the polls close.
- 2 hours of entitled paid time off is the maximum your employee is eligible for regarding voter leave in NYC, how much is actually needed however, is determined on an individual basis by considering traffic, wait times, and more.
- Your employee must notify you 2 business days in advance of their intention to use voter leave PTO, but not more than 10 business days in advance.
Main Highlights of Military Leave in NYC:
- If your employee enlists in any of the Armed Forces, they are allowed a maximum of 4 years of absence. They are entitled to more if there is a “period of war” or “national emergency”.
- If your employee is honorably discharged or released from military service and applies to work once more within 90 days of termination of military duty, you, the employer, MUST reinstate them as an employee without any prejudicial treatment.
- If your employee returns to work after military leave, they must receive the same salary they would have received had they remained in their position for the duration of the leave.
Jury Duty Employee Regulations, An Expanded View
Who Qualifies?
Two things are certain, jury duty and taxes, or something like that. Though there are a select few caveats that can disqualify you from jury duty in New York. According to NY Juror, in order for your employees to be selected for jury duty, they must:
- Be a United States Citizen
- Be a resident of the county they have been called to serve in
- Must be 18 years old
- Must be able to speak and understand the English language
- Cannot have been convicted of a felony
If your employees meet all of these requirements, they could potentially be selected for jury duty at any time.
How Do They Choose?
New York chooses jurors by randomly selecting them from lists they compiled based on income tax filings, volunteer work, unemployment insurance, driver’s licenses, and more. If your employees have participated in any of these, they can potentially be selected.
Can Your Employees Skip Jury Duty?
Jury duty can be likened to paying taxes, it’s required, and if you try to avoid it, chances are eventually it is going to catch up with you. Just like owing back taxes, failing to appear to a jury duty summons in NYC can result in civil and criminal penalties. Even worse, your employee will likely just be assigned a new date to appear.
According to the Law Office of Jay Knispel, if your employee misses a jury duty date in NYC, it can essentially be treated as contempt of court, which can lead to jail time.
Believe it or not though, there are legal ways for your employees to get out of jury duty. NYC allows for your employees to request an excuse from service due to medical issues or financial hardships. No exemptions are automatic however, so your employees must request an excuse or postponement of service by contacting the NYS Commissioner of Jurors at least a week before your employee has been summoned to serve.
How Long Can You Expect Your Summoned Employee to be Gone?
This is something that varies greatly depending on the situation. If your employee is not chosen to sit through a trial, they may only be gone for a day or two. Unfortunately, even if they are not selected for the trial itself, a court may want to keep them on call in case they are needed for up to five days.
If your employee is selected to serve on a trial, they will only be required to go through the one trial. It is the judge that will let jurors know how long this trial is estimated to last. Depending on the trial, they can last from a week to a month, or even more. The Grand Jurors Handbook has more details.
What Accommodations Must I Provide for My Employee’s Jury Duty Leave in NYC
Essentially, if you are an employer with more than 10 employees, you will be required to pay the jury fee of $40 a day for each day your employee is gone. Thankfully, this is limited to a maximum of 3 days. After the third day, the obligation to pay the juror shifts to the state.
If the juror has to be on the case for more than 30 days, sometimes the court may approve an extra $6 per day. While these are the general rules for paying the jury duty fees in NYC, it is a bit more nuanced than that. That is why we recommend checking out the NY Juror flowchart to see who is obligated to pay your employee’s fee.
It is also important to note that as an employer, you CANNOT force an employee to take PTO and/or sick leave while they are on jury duty. If you do, you can be subjected to civil and criminal penalties. However, an employee can elect to take PTO and/or sick time so they can get paid more while on jury duty.
How Often Can My Employees Be Summoned for Jury Duty?
Great question. This varies depending on the situation. Whether your employee has served in the Federal or State court system in New York, under most circumstances, your employee will not be expected to serve again for at the minimum, 6 years. This applies whether they had to report in-person, or via their call-in system.
If your employee was on jury duty for over 10 days, they will not have to serve again in a New York State court for at minimum, 8 years. This is shortened to 6 years for Town and Village courts. However, it is important to note that if your employee served as a juror in a New York State Court, they may still be required to serve in a federal court in New York.
There are four federal courts in New York State that have varying grace periods. The northern, eastern, and western districts have a 2-year grace period, meaning your employee will not have a chance to be summoned for 2 years after their service date to federal courts in NYC. The southern district has a grace period of 4 years.
This comes with some additional caveats believe it or not. The eastern district grace period only applies if your employee’s jury duty service was in person, and not limited to the on-call standby service. The northern district’s grace period does not apply for those who were not selected to serve on a jury. For a more detailed analysis of these rules, check out the NY Juror Federal Court District Rules.
Voter Leave Regulations, An Expanded View
Sufficient Time to Vote
Voter leave regulations in NYC were amended as recently as April of 2020. It is now required that your employees are allowed a maximum of 2 hours of paid time off to vote. Fortunately, this only applies if an employee does not have “sufficient time to vote.”
Sufficient time to vote is a well-defined term. If your employee has 4 consecutive hours of time to vote from the opening of the polls to the start of their work shift, or 4 consecutive hours from the end of their work shift to the closing of the polls, this is considered sufficient time to vote, and you are not obligated to give them any paid time off.
Keep in mind that this 2 hours of paid time off is the maximum. You may only be obligated to pay less, depending on the individual needs of your employee. You have to consider the wait times at polls, traffic problems, and many other factors.
Advanced Notification and Working Days Definition
For your employees to qualify for their paid time off to vote, they must inform you, their employer, a minimum of 2 “working days” in advance of their intention to take time off to vote. Strangely, New York statute also states that they cannot notify you more than 10 “working days” in advance.
Interestingly, the term “working days” is not rigidly defined in the statutes, but a recent court ruling has set a precedent that a “working day” is defined by you, the employer as essentially any day your business is open and operating.
Risks and Penalties
If as the employer you refuse to provide your employee with paid time off, or do not allot them the necessary amount of paid time off to vote, you can be subject to both civil and criminal penalties. You also cannot require your employees to use any leave time such as PTO and/or sick time to vote. Check out the Time off to Vote FAQ 2020 to learn more.
Military Leave Regulations, An Expanded View
What Qualifies as Military Law Leave?
NYC law regarding military leave provides employment protection for anyone who serves in the armed forces. This means that anything from The National Guard to the Marines, Air Force, Army, and Navy, they all qualify for military employment protection according to NYC statues.
If you have an employee that is called to serve in any of the branches of the Armed Forces, that employee can be gone for up to four years. If they return before that time expires, then under the current law, you as an employer, have to rehire them if they reapply.
This time period can be even longer if we are at war, or the President declares a national emergency. The government may also choose to extend this time for an additional year at their discretion.
An important note, however, is that in order for your employee to qualify for any of these benefits under the NYC Military Law, they MUST have been either honorably discharged, or released from their duty under honorable circumstances, otherwise, they forfeit all of these benefits.
Military Law Reinstatement Details
Whether your employee enlists, or is drafted into any branch of the military, they will have to be categorized by you, the employer, as being on a military leave of absence. This means that so long as your employee comes back within 4 years (or longer depending on the situation) and applies with your company within 90 days of their completion of military duty, they are entitled to be reinstated at their position within the company.
Even if your employee does not request to be reinstated within the 90-day deadline, they can be eligible to get their job back for an entire year after their military service is complete. This is at the discretion of their appointing officer.
Conditions of Reinstatement
When your employee returns from military leave, you probably have a lot of questions. How do you go forward? What do you pay them? What about sick leave, PTO? What position are they in now? After all, they could have been gone for years.
NYC military law clearly states that an employee on military leave cannot be subjected to any kind of prejudice for things like promotions, transfers, PTO, or sick time.
What this means is that when your employee returns from military leave, you must treat them as if they never left. This means that they are entitled to raises they would have received for staying, as well as promotions.
You are required at least to reinstate them into their previous position, allowing for them to still have all the PTO, sick time, and other benefits that they would have otherwise accrued had they been an employee during their leave. As stated by the New York State Comptroller, this includes retirement benefits.
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