Allowing time off work

Time off for public 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 on the Directgov website - Opens in a new window.

Employees can complain to an employment 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.

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

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.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Time off - paid or unpaid
• Time off for information and consultation purposes
• Time off for certain training and job-related duties and activities
• Statutory time off for parental reasons
• Time off for personal commitments and emergencies
• Time off for public service and duties
• Time off for magistrate duty
• 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

Print options - What are my print options - Opens in a new window

• Add guide to my print portfolio (print later as PDF)

Email options - What are my email options - Opens in a new window

• Tell a friend about this page
• Send me an email alert when this guide changes