How do I process wages for employee who is doing jury duty?

Connie Halva

I have an employee who is about to do jury duty and I am not sure how to process their wages in Reckon. The Australian Govt. will pay a small amount daily and then I will need to pay the employee the difference to get to their normal gross wages. Has anyone had this same scenario?

Wilma

Hi Connie,
You need to create a new Pay item for Jury duty as it does not attract Superannuation, it will accrue all leave. Then pay as normal using this item.

Sue Wood

Hi Wilma

I am in the same situation as Connie was.  So I made a new Pay Item for Jury Duty that does not attract Superannuation as you suggested.  Trouble is, its not possible to pay them as normal.  QuickBooks wants you to use Pay Rate and Hours to calculate the Jury Duty amount...any suggestions?

Sue

Jay Jay

Hi Connie,
Normally for  jury duty, you will pay the employee as per normal and remove super during the pay run (if the situation apply), you will have to record another income event for the money you get from the Government. 

zaighamlilani

One of our employees went for Jury duty (5 days first and 9 days the second time - 14 days altogether). We have paid her as normal for past 2 fortnights to make adjustment once she gets paid. She has received payment just recently. I understand we have to pay her make up pay for up to 10 days. I also understand creating a new Payroll items for Jury Duty and not include superannuation component.

I am unable to picture the complete thing as yet in my mind as to how and what appears within the payroll processing. Please assist. Regards, Zaigham Lilani

Acctd4

Hi @zaighamlilani

For the employee to be entitled to make-up pay, they need to have provided you with evidence of the amount(s) they received, so you can determine the difference payable between the attendance payment they received for this (NOT including any expense reimbursements eg travel) & their ordinary base rate of pay from you.

The problem here is that you paid them more, AND in advance 😬 so the employee will need to agree in writing to you deducting any excess from their subsequent pay.

You would then use your "Jury Duty" Payroll Item (you will need to create this if you haven't already) to pay the makeup entitlement amount, along with a Deduction-type Payroll Item, to reduce their ordinary pay amount. Again, you will need to create this - PAYG applies, along with normal leave accruals but yes, no Super is applicable. Jury Duty pay is also reportable with other wage payments at W1 on the BAS.

You should check the specific amounts relevant for your state:

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/community-service-leave/jury-duty

You may also be entitled to apply for employer reimbursement.

zaighamlilani

Thank you so much Shaz for the prompt reply. The evidence is in hand about how much has been paid to her for her Jury duty and the balance has been calculated as advised.

Thank you for your advising that consent of employee is required for deduction of excess.

I have created Jury Duty Hourly (to add the payment received) and Employee Deduction Jury pay (to deduct it back). With portion of Hourly Pay and Jury Duty Hourly, the leave accruals are applied while Super is calculated only on the balance payment.

The only concern is the Rate and Hours fields have been tweaked around to match the fortnightly 80hrs for right leave accrual which I hope would fine. Unless you have a better idea to use Salary instead of Hourly payment. Thank you so much again.

Regards,

Zaigham Lilani

Acctd4

Hi Zaigham

It depends on:

• Whether the employee already received their leave accrual on the advance amount that you paid
• How you've set leave accruals eg Are they Every Hour (recommended) ?

You can use an Addition-Type Payroll Item.

If the employee didn't accrue leave on the advance amount ... Best option to keep the hours correct is to use the Hourly Pay for the relevant Jury Duty-portion of the hours at $ 0.00 rate (this is purely to accrue the leave) AND then use the Addition-Type Payroll Item to enter the Jury Duty monetary amount.

If you also need to deduct the advance amount, use a Deduction-Type at a set amount like the Addition (eg NOT based on Hours):

(If they did accrue leave previously, you don't need the $ 0.00 rate line but can just pay their normal hours worked as usual & the Jury Duty Addition portion)

zaighamlilani

This is very helpful Shaz - thank you so much.

Regards

Zaigham Lilani

Acctd4

You're very welcome Zaigham ☺️

zaighamlilani

Morning Shaz - I have another query if you could please assist.

As per fairwork, we have to pay 10 days of make up pay to the employee (she attended Jury for 14 days and got paid for 14 days as well). If we are paying her for 10 days, shall we mark the 4 days (of unpaid leave) as LWOP in the system? Please advise otherwise. Thank you so much!

Acctd4

If you want the hours recorded then you could do that, yes.

zaighamlilani

Well noted Shaz. What if she has worked office hours during these jury duty day (before and/or after jury duty)?

To be more specific, the following hrs have been recorded in the timesheets for 4 weeks:

1st week: 18.5hrs in office and 21.5hrs at jury duty (40hrs)

2nd week: 13hrs in office and 27hrs at jury duty (40hrs)

3rd week: 15.5hrs in office and 24.5hrs at jury duty (40hrs)

4th week: 32hrs at office and 8hrs of personal leave (no jury duty; 40hrs)

Note: 1st and 2nd week is one payroll fortnight, and 3rd and 4th are second payroll fortnight.

The employee has received $904.40 for 14 days of Jury duty ($64.60/day). For 10 days of makeup pay, we need to pay her $1,662 ($166.20/day). Off the 14 days, 9 days of jury duty fell under 1st fortnight and 5 days under 2nd fortnight.

Based on your expert opinion, may I please ask how would resolve this matter in the simplest manner (it is very confusing to us at this stage unfortunately). Reckon snip like before would be a great help.

Regards,

Zaigham Lilani

Acctd4

Hi Zaigham

As per my previous screenshot, use the employee's normal Hourly Pay Payroll Item to record any normal hours actually worked & just use the Jury Duty Topup one to add any lump sum topup amount.

If you don't already have one, you can create a LWoP Payroll Item to record the 4 days of unpaid leave. Note this one should be an "Wage > Hourly > Regular Pay" Payroll Item but not accrue any leave. (No Super or PAYG applies either however these are based on monetary amounts so if there's no value, it won't trigger these calcs anyway ☺️):