Employers burdened! If gov’t wants jurors it should pay their salaries
Local attorney-at-law Daniel Fligelstone Davies has publicly criticised the government and Deputy Governor (DG) David Archer Jr for what he (the attorney) described as ‘unreasonably’ mandating employers to pay their employees during the time they (the workers) are called for jury duty.
According to Section 43 of the proposed Virgin Islands Jury Act, 2022, the employer of a person who is serving, has served, or is qualified to serve as a juror is prohibited from deducting any sum from the salary of that employee because he or she is a juror. They are also prohibited from penalising their workers, whether directly or indirectly, for missing work for jury duty.
When questioned last night during a virtual public consultation about whether this proposed policy was fair to employers, the Deputy Governor described it as an international practice.
“The whole idea of ‘subsidising the government’ is a question as to whether or not employees should be paid [their salary] if they are serving as jurors. It is something that is not just within the territory but from a global standard that persons should not be penalised for having the ability to serve and to perform a civic duty … It’s not a fault of their own that they would not be able to be on the job at the time,” Archer Jr said.
DG demonstrating low level of critical thinking
But in revealing himself as the author of that question to the Deputy Governor, Fligelstone Davies said in a subsequent Facebook post that he was dissatisfied with Archer Jr’s rationale.
He said he was disappointed by the DG’s response, “because it demonstrated an inconceivably low level of critical thinking”.
The young attorney argued that the policy was “fundamentally wrong given that employers pay more taxes, NHI, and Social Security than employees and that employers should not have to ‘subsidise the government’ further by having to pay the employee during the time they (the workers) are performing the jury service.”
“To put things into perspective, when an employee is selected to serve as a juror, the employer then has to either find someone to temporarily fill in or pay other staff members (if there are any) overtime, plus taxes on the overtime, and the ordinary salary of the ‘juried employee’,” Fligelstone Davies reasoned.
He continued: “So, essentially, the present jury system, particularly the one that is being proposed penalises the employer. Now this may be fine for those well-paid public officers and elected leaders whose salary is near or over six figures, and thus have a business as a hobby, but it certainly is not good for persons whose sole income is derived from being able to keep their business open. If a trial goes on for weeks, that can be exceedingly expensive and unduly burdensome, particularly for small businesses; particularly in these hard economic times. Since the government wants people to sit on juries, let the government pay their salaries.”
In giving an example to further bolster his argument, Fligelstone Davies added: “Let us say, you run a small restaurant with one chef, and along comes the government robbing you of your chef for a month, and let’s say this is in tourist season. Where would this law leave you?”
Stop harassing small/medium-sized businesses
The attorney concluded his rant by calling on elected officials and the DG to stop what he described as a ‘take, take, take from businesses’ mentality. He charged them to also realise that local small/medium-sized businesses are not piggy banks.
“If government needs jurors, then the government needs to properly pay the persons selected to be jurors or have Social Security do it, but please stop harassing small/medium-sized businesses,” Fligelstone Davies stated.
According to figures cited by the Deputy Governor’s Office, a juror is entitled to an allowance of $20 for each day they attend court. The juror is also entitled to subsistence allowance of $10 per day, as well as travel allowance for every mile he/she travels to get to court.
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Who is gonna pay the self-employed in this case?
That boy just had to open he mouth but he no think about what he want to say first.
He is not wrong, why are employers paying for jurors which are required by the government. This should be a government expense. Agree completely.
I 100% agree with Daniel. Government waste so much money on over inflated contracts for kick backs. They should be mandated to pay the salary of jurors. Stop talking piss about who else doing what. Think for yourself big man. Be a damm leader and not a follower.
This is a universal problem common to most places that use juries from the public, not just here. Jury service in the US garner daily fees ($10-20 pee day) that in some cases don’t even cover payment for parking or costs to get to court. Jurors can be co-opted in cases that run for months and that they can’t talk about outside court. Employers get left holding the bag when an employee gets selected for such duty. The services of that employee now need to be covered by other staff (more work for fewer never goes down well), or someone needs to be hired temporarily ( added costs for employer) since you can’t sack someone for being selected for jury duty. Having an employer obligation to pay their salary (does not exist in US) while away on jury duty is even more burdensome unless a juror uses vacation time for it. Who wants to that, and what happens if trial lasts longer than vacation time accrued? Any wonder most people try to get out of jury duty? All parties (employers, employees and justice system) lose out under the present scheme. Instead, there should be funding to re-imburse employers for wages they pay while on jury duty, but that comes with the usual objections about limitations on budgest etc. Ultimately, and sadly, not a priority.
International practice my a$$, UK and USA don’t. BVI trying to bankrupt us small businesses, so I have to pay for employee that the government has taken and then also have to pay temp replacement to keep my business alive. Yet another reason for companies to be discouraged from hiring a BVIslander …. expats don’t have to do jury duty.
This is disgraceful – govnement can pay people – judge, court clerk etc etc all being paid, why employer need to pay? got jokes
Maybe it is time to look at alternatives to the jury system.
(small business)
It is called doing your civic duty, and does occur in the the two countries you claim it does not, you are given a small allowance.
Employers want to enjoy the benefits of the countries in which they do business, so this is one of the perks that come with it.
You obviously don’t own a small business, I can’t afford to pay 2 people to do 1 job for several weeks. I guess I should just hire foreigner.
I got what you’re saying. However, employers are not all big money pushers. There are persons who are not income generated who may have persons employed. For example a housekeeper in your home or your gardener etc. There are big account employers who can find ways and means to recover and recoup that expense, but there are those who cannot.
An option can be to choose jury from the public service as the government can afford to keep them paid.
have a look _https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim-if-youre-an-employee
By now do you all not see that All Governments are just in it for themselves, Family and some Friends?
Look at the Legislation passed in the HOA for one term Politicians to receive full salary for three (3) years? For the HOA members to receive comprehensive Insurance for themselves and families? Can this be right by the poor peoples’ Tax money? When as they All chanted in the COI sessions about this pandemic being the first in 100 years, while the people of the territory were suffering without Jobs, Did anyone with empathy and honesty get up and say in the HOA, WE, Politicians feel your pain and will take a 5% salary cut? NO, NOT ONE. Answer me, Are these Leaders? Are these the people WE need to represent us? People open your eyes…. This Attorney is right what what he said. Soo many evils but who has the Gonads to speak about them? This Jury Policy is even printed in the Labour Code. Who cares about the people? People of the BVI, OPEN your EYES!!!
The bvi AG AND GOV pi** so much money in The last 2 years paying vampire attorneys this is a fkn joke they can’t pony hourly $ for employer In a territory with a chickens**t labor pool. Frankly get a jury from another freaking territory because you got a 10% chance of getting somebody who hasn’t been gamed as an impartial juror
Why is this even a discussion? If an employee is selected for jury duty and therefore has to miss work for weeks or months the government should shoulder that expense, not the business. You expect a business, especially a small business in hospitality, retail etc. to pay someone their monthly wage, SSB, NHI, Inland Revenue to sit on a case on behalf of the BVI Judiciary System? You must be completely F**KING MAD! Go ahead and try it, and it’s the jurors that will suffer because no employer is paying that. Guess what comes next? Warnings from the employers that any employee that is chosen does so at their own risk, then what? Will the Labour Code be updated to address that? The little guy always gets the sh**ty end of the stick.
I live in New York and I can say first hand that my employer past and present pay me my full salary while I am on Jury Duty. In addition I am given
a minimum daily stipend from the Government… enough to cover lunch and carfare.This is the practice across the board in the USA.
Why are we surprised? Does he even THINK? The D* was NEVER the brightest lightbulb on the Christmas Tree. He wants small business owners to pay for everything while government continues to waste money. He clearly was NOT prepared last night and was just making stuff up, like he always does. Waste of time.
Hopefully he can pay his staff from his PRIVATE Club the WTM when they have jury duty. But at $1,500.00 a pop for membership he should have no problem.
Off course I do I have eight employees, and have in the past have some of them do jury duty, so I am not just blowing hot air.
In California, there is zero obligation to pay employee salaries while they are on jury duty. None, not a penny. All you get $ 15/day plus mileage from the Court. I expect most other states are the same. That is why there is a chronic shortage of jurors, and that is Figelstone-Davies’ point.
That you got your salary while on jury duty in NY does not mean that it is the law of the land in the US, even it if is law in NY. Can you cite NY statutes/laws that support your allegation? Perhaps it could be used as a template to tackle this problem here
Big corporations may have the resources to cover such expenses but smaller businesses definitely cannot and I think that’s the point here. The persons saying where they have worked paid them full salary etc. that’s the exception not the rule. Someone is operating a small deli in town and has a person employed as the food prep and server. That person is called for jury duty and will be out for 3 weeks. What should this small business owner do for 3 weeks, pay this person their wage while having to work the shop themselves or hire another person to do that job? Profit margins are drying up as business expenses are rising and most businesses are trying not to hit their customers too hard, it’s a difficult balance. Only people that work 9-5 at government or big private entities will scoff at the realities of small business concerns.
Remind us of all the NY direct and indirect taxes now:
Sales tax – 8%-8.875
Corp Federal tax – 21%
Corp State tax – 7.1%
Property tax – 1.23% of FMV
New York income tax – banding 4% – 8.82%
Federal income tax – banding 10% – 37%
Employer taxes – Federal WHT, Social Security, Medicare, FUTA, …..etc
I’m sure there are others. The point is the NY and Federal State can pay for a lot of things with taxes. There is no FREE lunch.
This is a two edged sword and opinions will fly for and against. When some lazy people stay home claiming sick for days they get full pay. Whem some lie and say they have to go see a doctor st.Thomas but gone shopping instead they get full pay’ ask dem cousins. Service to country and society is not getting any love here. Country above self’ so Jamaica sey. People bitch about crime and justice but do not want to serve on juries because of money then we have a societal problem. Work it out people.
Fligelstone made an excellent point. Many medium and small business cannot afford that extra financial burden. It is a civic duty to be a jurror but at the same time businesses have to keep staff employed and serve their customers. They cannot do that if they there are laws resulting in in overall loss for the businesses.
What about 50/50? Or done away with the practice and have three judges sit on all indictable matters. It’s shameful to learn of the governments’ meager contribution to our justice system.
Not everyone commenting on political matters is playing with a full deck of cards. Facebook comments do not form the basis of a news story.
Who is going to pay me to go to another DA “Book Party”?