To think this is very unfair on my boy?

[Tropicalsunshine]

My son is away at uni and like most students has little money. He's a hard worker and had already arranged to start his full time summer job as soon as he got home this week. (Same job as last year)
He was then called for jury service this week for 2 weeks. He has filled in all the forms but apparently because he hadn't done a shift yet at his job he's not entitled to any payment for lost earnings. This has totally wrecked his summer plans as he will be £800 down.
AIBU to think this can't be correct? It's a totally unreasonable way to treat people.
Does anyone in the know have any advice?

His work.can pay him.and reclaim.it, it seems.they are choosing not to

Ah yes - I read that as being his boss wouldn’t pay him.
Surely the boss could produce a contact and say he’d worked for them previously?

Yes, his work are now refusing to sign the form.

Seems unfair. I wonder what their reason is.

I think he could try the 'I can't be impartial' line. There will be alternate jurors available to fill his slot.

I have no qualms about this, having unwilling jurors - for whatever reason - is not justice.

You’re normally allowed to defer jury service once so I’d recommend he does that.

A bit annoying for him but I assume he is living at home with you for the summer so at least he hasn’t got to pay rent and bills. I hope you won’t be letting him go hungry and switching off his electricity supply.
What summer job pays £800 for 2 weeks though?
(what you said he would lose)

You can get insurance to cover self employed earning when on jury duty. Don’t know how much it costs though.

Could your son speak to HR at work? Or a union if he's in one? Just in case it is a case of the employer being difficult and he actually could claim the money.

Agreed, valid reason. Just call them.

I would check with the court about this situation. I did jury service recently and the court staff were really helpful advising where people were having issues with the forms and getting their employers to provide the relevant details.

The employer doesn't have to pay his wages whilst on jury service but I can't see why they would prevent him from claiming the loss of earnings expenses he is entitled to if he is employed - unless by doing the jury service his contractual start date has moved back so the employer is saying he is technically not an "employee" yet?

Sounds like a cash in gd d job with no contract

Agree , I'd say financial hardship too, you never know

I was called between my second and third year of university. I wrote back saying that if I didn't do paid work over that summer I wouldn't be able to afford to go back for my third year - this was absolutely true, as my parents could barely afford to give me anything at that point, and I was studying somewhere with little opportunity for term time work. They wrote back straight away deferring me, and I've never been called since, nearly 20 years later.

Given that some people go their whole lives without ever getting summoned, and simultaneously you can be summoned more than once, you would have to pay it until retirement. So surely you could just achieve the same result by saving the cost of the insurance every month?

And people who can't afford that are just as screwed as if they didn't have insurance, and they're the people who will really miss that income. So overall one of the most pointless insurances I've ever heard of.

Zaro hour contracts aren't cash in hand.

OP jury service should have been refused.

YANBU

I'm self employed and live in dread of the thought of getting called up for jury service as the business cannot run if I'm not there.

The amounts you can claim for lost earnings are an absolute pittance, and make no allowance for overheads, seasonal peaks and troughs, or anyone earning a decent amount.

Apparently £64.95 is meant to cover you for a whole days lost wages AND overheads AND extra care / childcare arrangements! Based on 6.5 hours work and zero overheads or care costs that's LESS than minimum wage!
https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim-if-youre-self-employed

When I was employed in a regular job it would have been an interesting fortnight. Now it's an unaffordably expensive fortnight.

sorry it’s my fault not explaining it properly. it’s not a separate insurance policy but rather that several loss of income type policies that self employed people can take out (to cover sickness injury business interruption etc) cover loss of income due to jury service. i agree it would be pretty pointless on its own!

I've found it essentially impossible to get that sort of insurance because I have a health condition, even though I haven't had any time off work in over 4 years, and always had a good sickness record before that.

Yes, my travel insurance is expensive (routinely 10x what my partner pays) but at least I can get that.

Business interruption insurance also routinely refused to pay out during lockdown.

Did the boss tell him he’d be getting paid or just saying it’s ok to not work those couple of weeks?

I think the boss probably meant that yes it’s fine to start later but didn’t mean he’d pay him.

I wish you posted sooner as there’s bound to have been some way to get paid if defer if.

My boss told me I wasn’t allowed to do it and so I had to defer it.
The courts then told me as I accepted but my boss said no, that I wouldn’t be called on again as it’s been put down as I’ve already done it.
Which I am gutted about as my dream is to do jury service!
This was during covid times when everything was different though.

@Needmorelego
A summer job that pays £11.50 an hour for 8 hours per day for 10 days? Pretty normal.

He should have pleaded extreme financial hardship, as pp suggested.

On the basis of what?!?

He has a contract but hasn't done a shift since last year. It's all legit. Unfortunately his immediate boss said it would be fine. She even said she'd put him on the rota in case he was dismissed by the court. Higher up have now said he's not employed by them as he hasn't done a shift so they won't sign the form.
All those saying defer, it's way too late for that- it seemed like a good time to get it out of the way.

Some people seem to think there's a kindly person sitting around who will listen to him pleading poverty. Unfortunately they have been pretty rude and dismissive and haven't taught him anything good about serving the community.
I think I was hoping there would be a solution but thanks so much for the sympathy😀
We have decided to give him a bit ourselves.

@Tropicalsunshine wow wages for summer jobs have certainly improved since my day. So if he wasn’t doing the Jury Service he would be earning £1600 a month? That’s a lot for a summer job.
How long is he off university? If it’s 3 months he would be earning £4800 for the summer. Even with the loss of the 2 weeks £4000 is pretty good.
What does the money need to cover?