Court Leave (Jury Duty)

Recently, we have had several inquiries regarding leave for jury duty. These inquiries have come from regular career employees as well as the temporary workforce, City Carrier Assistants, (CCAs).

CCAs are not eligible for paid court leave (jury duty).

Part-time flexible, (PTFs) who have completed their probationary period, are eligible for court leave if the employee would otherwise have been in a work status or annual leave status.  The amount of court leave for PTFs should not exceed eight hours in a service day or 40 hours in a service week.

Full-time regular employees are certainly eligible for court leave.

With all the employees who are eligible, if your Local Memorandum of Understanding, (LMOU) has specific language, non-schedule day off may be changed to Saturday to cover workweek for court leave (jury duty).

The regulations concerning court leave are found in ELM, Section 516. They provide, in part:

516.21 Definition Court leave is the authorized absence from work status (without loss of or reduction in pay, leave to which otherwise entitled, credit for time or service, or performance rating) of an employee who is summoned in connection with a judicial proceeding, by a court or authority responsible for the conduct of that proceeding, to serve as a juror, as a witness in a nonofficial capacity on behalf of a state or local government, or as a witness in a nonofficial capacity on behalf of a private party in a judicial proceeding to which the Postal Service is a party or the real party in interest. The court or judicial proceeding may be located in the District of Columbia, a state, territory, or possession of the United States, including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

516.22 Eligibility Court leave is granted to full-time and part-time regular employees. Certain part-time flexible employees are granted court leave as provided and governed by applicable collective bargaining agreements.

Other employees are ineligible for court leave and must use either annual leave or LWOP to cover the period of absence from postal duties for court service but may retain any fees or compensation received incident to such court service. Court leave is granted only to eligible employees who would be in work status or on annual leave except for jury duty or service as a witness in a nonofficial capacity on behalf of a state or local government, or service as a witness in a nonofficial capacity on behalf of a private party in a judicial proceeding to which the Postal Service is a party or the real party in interest. An employee on LWOP, when called for such court service, although otherwise eligible for court leave, is not granted court leave but may retain any fees or compensation received incident to such court service.