National Weather Service Employees Organization

NWSEO Agreement on Jury Duty

(December 16, 2011) NWSEO and NOAA reached a recent agreement that will benefit you when you serve on jury duty. Employees whose regular tour of duty includes Saturdays, Sundays or both, and who serve on a jury during the week may be granted court leave and be paid premium pay for the weekend days which are a part of their regular tour of duty. Please note, employees will continue to get their shift differential as if they worked their regular rotation. This is an improvement on the previous policy because the previous wording granted employees the weekend shift off only if they served five days on jury duty.

In exchange for this agreement, the NWS will do experimental Ice Accumulation Grids in NDFD in selected locations of the four regions in CONUS. NWSEO only agreed to the national policy, any regional specifics must be negotiated regionally.

The new agreement is as follows:

Article 19 Section 11
SECTION 11. Court leave will be granted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. An employee eligible for court leave shall be granted court leave to serve on a jury for the entire period of service, extending from the date on which he/she is required to report to the time of discharge by the court. If an employee is on annual leave when called for jury duty, court leave should be substituted.

A rotating shift worker who performs jury service during the day is eligible for court leave for his/her regularly scheduled tour of duty.

Employees granted Court leave for jury service are entitled to the same compensation they would otherwise have received, including premium pay, overtime and night differential.

Employees whose regular tour of duty includes Saturdays, Sundays or both, and who serve on a jury during the week may be granted court leave and be paid premium pay for the weekend days which are a part of their regular tour of duty.

-NWSEO-