Allowing time off work

Time off for public and judicial service and duties

Employees holding certain public positions are entitled to reasonable unpaid time off to perform their duties. These roles include:

• member of a local authority, police authority, local education authority, educational governing body, health authority or primary care trust
• member of any statutory tribunal, an environmental agency or of the boards of prison visitors

Find a complete list of those who are covered by the provisions for time off for public duties guidance on the NI Direct website - Opens in a new window.

Employees can complain to an industrial tribunal if they are unreasonably refused time off for public duties or dismissed for asserting the right to time off for public duties.

Jury service

You must not dismiss an employee or subject them to a detriment for having been summoned to participate in jury service.

The employee would not need a year's continuous employment to lodge an unfair dismissal claim - and any such dismissal would be seen to be automatically unfair by an industrial tribunal.

Employees are not protected against unfair dismissal if, after you have told them you believe your business will be seriously harmed by their absence, they unreasonably refuse or fail to apply to have their jury service deferred or to be excused from it.

You do not have to pay staff while they are doing jury service, unless the employee's contract permits this.

Read about jury service and pay on the HM Revenue & Customs website - Opens in a new window.

Magistrate duty

You must allow employees who are magistrates time off to perform their duties.

While you are not legally required to pay employees on magistrate service, many employers choose to do so.

Download guidance supporting employees who are magistrates from the Business in the Community website (PDF, 1.80MB) - Opens in a new window.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Who has the right to time off and when is it paid?
• Time off for information and consultation purposes
• Time off for training and certain job-related duties and activities
• Statutory time off for parental reasons
• Time off for personal commitments and emergencies
• Time off for public and judicial service and duties
• Employees in the armed forces
• Managing your staff's time off
• Here's how we support our people who require time off work for public duties

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