Manager harassing me on jury duty

[Tessywoooooo]

Hi all

I’ve name changed for this. I’m in my third week of jury duty and my line manager is putting me under pressure to come back to work. They are also questioning that I’ve been out for so long as ‘most trials only take a week, maybe 2’. The most recent request is that I ask the court to release me as I’ve done 2 cases already.

I’ve still been taking calls and submitting regular reports out of the 9-5 period that I’m in court.

My wife has advised me to tell my manager that yes of course I’ll ask but that my understanding is that jury duty is a civic duty for which employers have a legal obligation to release me and that I feel harassed and stressed by the implications being made and the pressure to get back to work. The difficultly with doing that is that it will change my relationship with my manager and I’ll be black listed as a trouble maker.

It’s a massive acquisition company that I work for so not like a family run business. Big hr department but not approachable in the same way that manager will think I’m going over his head.

Can anyone advise how to approach?

Usually you are on jury duty for two weeks unless you are on a trial which will last longer, and then it’s asked at jury selection.
Have a word with the court.
Jury duty is a civic duty and an important one, but it’s strange you are still there if you are not on a specific trial.

Thanks for responding - we Have to phone the jury line every day for 4 weeks to see whether or not our juror number has been called to attend - I’ve been called for 2 back to back cases. That means I could potentially be called for another on Monday, and so on until the end of the 4 week period.

We are in Northern Ireland but my boss is in England so I’m wondering if there’s a difference in jury requirements/legislation that’s causing the disconnect?

It’s really stressing me out

I think they're confused with the English/ Welsh system where you are called for 2 weeks then only do longer if on a trial that has not finished. Most people only do 2 weeks in that system. However the longest trial I've heard of lasted 13 months.

That would explain why they are so suspicious of this then