Community Service Leave and Jury Duty in Australia: Employer Obligations

When an employee is called for jury duty, or your office manager disappears for three days to fight bushfires with the local RFS brigade, they are exercising a legal right under Australia’s National Employment Standards. Community service leave is not discretionary — you cannot refuse it in most circumstances, and getting the payment rules wrong for jury duty can land you in breach of the Fair Work Act.

Community service leave covers two very different activities — jury duty and voluntary emergency management — and the rules for each are distinct. This guide covers both in detail: when they apply, what you have to pay, what evidence you can request, and where the boundaries of your obligations sit.

What Is Community Service Leave?

Community service leave is established under section 109 of the Fair Work Act 2009 as part of the National Employment Standards. It applies to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system — full-time, part-time, and casual.

The entitlement covers two categories of activity:

1. Jury duty (jury service) — attending court as a juror when legally summoned
2. Voluntary emergency management activities — responding to natural disasters or emergencies as a volunteer with recognised emergency services

Unlike most other leave types, community service leave has no set limit on duration. An employee who serves on a six-week trial is entitled to six weeks of community service leave. A volunteer firefighter who is deployed for two weeks during a major fire season is entitled to two weeks of absence.

The leave is separate from annual leave, personal leave, and all other entitlements. You cannot require an employee to use annual leave for jury duty or emergency management.

Jury Duty: Your Payment Obligations

Jury duty is where the money matters get complicated — and where employers most commonly make mistakes.

The Basic Rule

Full-time and part-time employees are entitled to make-up pay for the first 10 days of jury service. Make-up pay is the difference between the jury attendance payment the employee receives from the court and the employee’s base pay for the ordinary hours they would have worked during that period.

Casual employees are not entitled to make-up pay for jury duty. Their jury service is unpaid by the employer, though they receive the standard jury attendance payment from the court.

How Make-Up Pay Works: A Worked Example

Let’s say a full-time employee on a base rate of $35 per hour (38-hour week) is called for jury duty. The court pays them $40 per day as a jury attendance fee. Over 5 days, the calculation looks like this:

• Employee’s ordinary weekly pay: 38 hours x $35 = $1,330
• Employee’s daily ordinary pay (38 ÷ 5): $1,330 ÷ 5 = $266 per day
• Jury attendance fee: $40 per day
• Make-up pay per day: $266 - $40 = $226 per day
• Total make-up pay for 5 days: 5 x $226 = $1,130

The employee receives $40 per day from the court plus $226 per day from you, totalling their full ordinary pay. You are responsible for topping up the difference — the employee should not be financially disadvantaged by fulfilling their civic duty.

After the First 10 Days

The make-up pay obligation only applies for the first 10 days of jury service. After that, the employer is not required to make up the difference. For longer trials, the employee may need to rely on the court’s jury payment, use annual leave, or take unpaid leave — depending on what your workplace policy or applicable Modern Award provides.

Some awards and enterprise agreements provide more generous arrangements — for example, extending the make-up pay period beyond 10 days. Check the applicable instrument, but never provide less than the NES minimum.

What Counts as “Base Pay”

Make-up pay is calculated on the employee’s base rate of pay for ordinary hours of work. It does not include overtime, penalty rates, allowances, or loadings — unless your applicable award or agreement specifies otherwise. If the employee would normally have worked overtime on the days of jury service, you are not required to pay make-up pay for those overtime hours.

For employees on salary, the base rate is derived by dividing the annual salary by 52.18 weeks, then by the ordinary weekly hours. For employees on an hourly rate, it is their ordinary hourly rate multiplied by the hours they would have worked.

Voluntary Emergency Management

The second category of community service leave covers employees who volunteer for emergency service organisations such as the SES (State Emergency Service), CFA (Country Fire Authority in Victoria), RFS (Rural Fire Service in NSW), or equivalent bodies in other states and territories.

When It Applies

An employee is entitled to community service leave for voluntary emergency management when:

• They are a member of a recognised emergency management body — this includes the SES, CFA, RFS, state emergency services, and other organisations declared by the Minister
• They are engaged in an activity that involves dealing with an emergency or natural disaster
• The absence is reasonable in all the circumstances

When You Cannot Refuse

Unlike jury duty, which is a legal summons, voluntary emergency management relies on the employee choosing to respond. However, the employer’s right to refuse the absence is very limited. You cannot refuse the leave if all three conditions above are met and the absence is reasonable.

What “Reasonable” Means

The Fair Work Act does not define “reasonable” exhaustively, but the following factors are relevant:

• Duration of the absence — a few days during an active emergency is clearly reasonable; several weeks may require discussion
• Amount of notice given — emergencies are inherently unpredictable, but employees should notify you as soon as practicable
• Your operational needs — if the employee’s absence would create a genuine safety risk (for example, a sole-charge operator in a critical role), this is a relevant factor
• The nature of the emergency — a catastrophic bushfire or major flood is different from a routine training exercise
• Whether the employee is actively engaged in the response — travelling to the emergency, attending briefings, and being deployed are all part of the activity

Reasonableness is assessed case by case. A blanket policy of “no emergency leave during peak season” would not withstand scrutiny, but asking an employee to delay deployment by 24 hours so you can arrange cover may be reasonable in the right circumstances.

Payment for Voluntary Emergency Management

Community service leave for voluntary emergency management activities is unpaid. The employer has no obligation to pay the employee during the absence. Employees may choose to use annual leave or unpaid leave during this period.

This contrasts with jury duty, where make-up pay applies. The distinction reflects the fact that jury duty is a compulsory civic obligation, while voluntary emergency management is, by definition, voluntary.

For more on how annual leave interacts with other entitlements, see our guide to annual leave entitlements in Australia.

Notice and Evidence

Notice Requirements

For both jury duty and voluntary emergency management, the employee must give notice as soon as practicable — including the expected period of absence.

For jury duty, the employee will typically receive a summons well in advance, so you should expect reasonable notice. For emergency management, the nature of emergencies means notice may be very short — a phone call at 5am saying “I’ve been called out, I expect to be gone for three days” may be all that is practicable.

Evidence Requirements

Employers can request evidence of the community service. Acceptable evidence includes:

• Jury duty: the jury summons, a letter from the court confirming attendance, or a certificate of jury service
• Emergency management: a letter or notice from the emergency service organisation confirming the employee’s engagement in the activity, a deployment record, or other documentation from the relevant body

You cannot demand more evidence than is reasonable. A formal court attendance certificate is appropriate for jury duty; requiring the employee to obtain additional documentation beyond what the court provides is not.

Common Mistakes

Requiring Annual Leave for Jury Duty

You cannot force an employee to use annual leave for jury duty. They are entitled to community service leave with make-up pay for the first 10 days. If an employee volunteers to use annual leave instead, that is their choice — but you cannot require it or pressure them into it.

Refusing Emergency Management Leave

Refusing community service leave for voluntary emergency management when all the criteria are met is a breach of the NES. Even if the timing is inconvenient, you need to find a way to manage the absence. Operational inconvenience does not override a statutory entitlement.

Not Paying Make-Up Pay Correctly

Calculating make-up pay incorrectly — for example, not accounting for the jury attendance fee correctly, or calculating on the wrong base rate — can result in an underpayment. With wage theft criminalised since January 2025 (fines up to $8.25 million for companies), getting this right matters more than ever.

Ignoring Casual Employee Rights

Casual employees are entitled to unpaid community service leave for both jury duty and emergency management. You cannot refuse the leave, penalise the employee, or terminate their engagement because they are unavailable due to community service.

Tracking Community Service Leave in Your System

Community service leave should be tracked as a separate leave category. It is not personal leave, it is not annual leave, and it should not be recorded as “other” or “miscellaneous.” You need to record:

• The type of community service (jury duty or emergency management)
• The dates of absence
• The make-up pay amount (for jury duty, first 10 days)
• The evidence provided
• Whether the absence was reasonable (for emergency management)

For broader compliance guidance on all leave types, see our Fair Work leave compliance guide and our National Employment Standards leave guide.

Practical Tips

1. Have a policy. A written policy on community service leave — covering both jury duty and emergency management — gives managers clear guidance and ensures consistency.

2. Know your local emergency services. If you operate in regional or rural Australia, chances are some of your employees are RFS, CFA, or SES volunteers. Knowing who they are before an emergency happens helps you plan for absences.

3. Build it into rostering. During bushfire season (typically October to March in southern Australia), consider rostering with emergency volunteer availability in mind. Having backup arrangements in place before you get the 5am phone call makes a significant difference.

4. Keep jury duty make-up pay calculations simple. Calculate the employee’s ordinary pay for the period, subtract the jury attendance fee, and pay the difference. Do not overcomplicate it with deductions or offsets.

How Leave Balance Helps

Leave Balance includes community service leave as a dedicated leave type, separate from personal leave and annual leave. The system tracks jury duty days (with make-up pay calculations for the first 10 days) and voluntary emergency management absences independently. Managers can see at a glance which employees are on community service leave and why, while payroll gets the information needed for correct make-up pay processing.

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