Employer fined after docking employee’s pay for jury duty absence
People v Rosenbach, Nassau Co. Ct. [Justice DeMaro], [Not selected for publication in the Official Reports]

From time to time a public employee is called to serve on jury duty. The attendance rules for state officers and employees [4 NYCRR 28.1.9], for example, grants employees “leave with pay without charge to leave accruals” when called upon for jury service. Other jurisdictions provide for similar benefits.

In contrast, penalizing an employee for performing his or her civic duty by reporting for jury duty can be expensive, as attorney Ann Rosenbach has learned. Rosenbach was fined $1310 for criminal contempt after she docked one and one-half weeks of pay from the salary of an attorney in her employ when the attorney was called for jury duty.*

State Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Brand, who prosecuted the case, said “this may be the first time an employer was held in criminal contempt for ‘penalizing’ an employee called to serve on jury duty.

* Lynn Weit, who worked as an attorney in Rosenbach’s law office, received a jury summons and informed Rosenbach that she would be absent from work for an expected two days to fulfill her civic obligation.
NYPPL