Charging Vacation Days for Jury Duty is ‘Contemptuous’

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/02/16/charging-vacation-days-for-jury-duty-is-contemptuous/

Charging Vacation Days for Jury Duty is ‘Contemptuous’

by Mike Hall, Feb 16, 2007

Corporations love to portray themselves as good community partners and corporate citizens that encourage employees to be good citizens, too.

Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes, as we all know, it’s just good PR (or maybe you prefer a different two-letter acronym). But one Oklahoma company didn’t even bother to fake its civic duty concerns. It docked a worker 15 vacation days for serving on a jury. And did that tick off a federal judge.

The Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required) reported last week that Tulsa-based Heritage Propane twice docked a worker vacation days for his service as a juror in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

According to the report, after the Tennessee worker was charged vacation time for nine days of jury service, he informed the clerk of the court. The judge’s law clerk then contacted the company, which claimed it was unaware of state and federal laws regarding jury duty but would restore the worker’s vacation days.

But later that year, after the worker served another six days on a jury, he was charged another six vacation days. District Judge Ronnie Greer ordered Heritage to come to court Feb. 1 and explain why it should not be held in contempt. At the contempt hearing, Greer said:

No juror can be expected to listen in the attentive manner required to fairly consider the evidence presented at a trial nor take the time to deliberate a verdict in a rational and careful way to reach a unanimous verdict if the juror is anxious and worried about the security of his or her employment or the loss of benefits as a result of absence from work because of jury service….Employer reprisal in any form…is an obstruction of justice, fosters disrespect for the rule of law and jeopardizes the national policy of providing a fair cross section of the community on juries.

Lawyers for Heritage told Greer the company restored the worker’s second batch of vacation days and that it had changed its jury duty policy, but that the new policy hadn’t reached down to the regional manager level.

How did the court find? According to the Daily Labor Report:

Calling Heritage’s behavior toward the employee “contemptuous” and likely a violation of federal and state law, the judge said that an apology from the company to the court and guarantees that the company had changed its policy eliminated the need to hold the company in contempt.

[AX10]

1. WTF? Shouldn't the court order the workers pay reinstated?

[Kagemusha]

3. The vacation days were what was docked and those got restored.

Twice, which is the amazing part of the story. The company was lucky to get off again. Very lucky the judge showed mercy in exchange for what we must expect and hope to be full compliance.

[depakid]

2. The ONLY thing corporations listen to is money- and jail time

The judge should have imposed a hefty fine- and sent the executive(s) in charge to jail for a few days to think about what they WILLINGLY have done.

Do that a few times- and word will leak out. Problem solved.