Community service leave

Community service leave allows employees to take time off from their job to participate in important community activities. This includes serving on a jury or assisting in voluntary emergency services like firefighting or natural disaster response. It's a way to ensure that employees can contribute to key community services without losing their employment rights.

Is community service leave paid?

Community service leave is unpaid, with one exception: permanent employees on jury service must be paid make-up pay, which is the difference between their jury payment and their base rate of pay for their ordinary hours, for the first 10 days of each jury summons. Casual employees can take the leave but do not get make-up pay. Attending court as a witness is not community service leave. For example, a full-time employee who receives $100 a day in jury pay must be topped up to their base pay for up to 10 days of that jury service.

Read our guides to community service leave and managing jury duty.