I was picked to serve on a jury that will require me to be away from work for approx 3 weeks. My employer pays 3 days of jury service. I have been making up some time by working a couple hours each day and on a Saturday but the remainder of the time that I am spending in jury duty my employer is requiring me to use my accrued vacation time. I had asked if I could not be paid for some of my time away to save some of my vacation but I was told I have to use by vacation first. This doesn't seem right and I feel as though I am being punished for serving on this jury! By the way I live in California. Is this legal for them to do this.

Hello jal:

Thank you for taking your civil duty seriously. I'll bet it's perfectly legal for them to treat you this way, but I'm hoping not.

When ordinary people (called peers in the Constitution) are prevented from serving on juries (as you surly are), you get juries who let people like OJ go free. That's what I think.

excon

PS> Yeah, I'm a guy who actually believes what the Constitution says.

It is most likely company policy, esp if this is a larger company.
Also many states have rules that vacation pay has to be paid, if no jury duty pay is allowed.

So basically take the pay, nad ask for non paid time off latter if you need it off.