5 Mistakes Employers Make with Community Service Leave

When was the last time you gave any serious thought to Community Service Leave?

If you’re like most business owners, probably never. And that’s fair. Among the usual minefields of managing sick leave, annual leave, and parental leave, community service leave tends to sit quietly in the background. Many don't even know it's a thing - until it is.

What is Community Service Leave?

Under the Fair Work Act, community service leave allows employees to take time off to engage in eligible community activities. These include:

• Voluntary Emergency Management Activities (think Volunteer Fire Fighters, or SES callouts)

• Jury Duty

  
  

Here’s where things start to get a bit complex. Community leave is unpaid (except for jury duty in certain cases) and has no limit on duration, as long as the activity is reasonable and the employee is actually engaged in the activity or travelling to/from it.

Even though this type of leave is mostly 'unpaid', many employers end up paying for it anyway, out of confusion, poor policies, or simply a desire to keep the peace.

5 Things Most Commonly Misunderstood

1. It's not just about Jury Duty

Many employers assume community service leave only covers jury duty. In reality, it also includes voluntary emergency management activities, for example, helping with SES, firefighting, or responding to natural disasters.To be eligible, the employee must be:

• Volunteering for a recognised emergency management body, and

• Requested or directed to attend the emergency situation.

  
  

2. Employees misuse it (often unknowingly).

Sometimes, employees think activities like volunteering at their local school carnival qualifies. It doesn’t.

Others assume they can take indefinite unpaid leave to help out at a local charity. This is also incorrect.

Unless the employee is involved in an emergency management activity through a recognised organisation, or they’re summoned for jury duty, they aren’t entitled under the Fair Work Act. But if your business doesn't spell this out clearly, guess who ends up looking like the bad guy? Yep, you.

3. Discourage it, and it's a PR problem waiting to happen.

Imagine for a moment a business in a regional area that penalised a staff member for attending an SES emergency flood response. Their justification was that "he left us short-staffed and didn’t give us proper notice."

In doing so, legally the business would be wrong. But even worse, it has the potential to spark a local backlash when the story invariably gets out on social media.

Supporting employees who perform essential community roles isn’t just about ticking legal boxes. It’s about positioning the brand as part of the community, not just a business in it.

4. There’s No Cap on Jury Duty Leave, But There is on Pay

Here’s one that can catch businesses out:

• Jury duty can last for weeks (even months in rare cases), and there's no cap on how long your employee can be away.

• However, where pay is concerned, you only have to pay the difference between the employee’s base pay and the jury duty allowance for the first 10 days. After that, it’s unpaid, unless you choose to go above and beyond.

  
  

5. You Can Ask for Evidence, and You Should

Some business owners feel awkward asking for documentation, but you’re well within your rights to do so.

For jury duty: ask for a copy of the court summons.

For emergency service: ask for confirmation from the emergency organisation.

If the employee doesn’t provide reasonable evidence, you don’t have to approve the leave.

The Real Risk Isn’t Legal, It’s Cultural

While non-compliance with community leave laws is a legal risk, the bigger issue can be a cultural one, especially in regional and rural areas.

If your business doesn’t respect and support community involvement, what message are you sending?

In regional and rural areas, potentially your staff are the SES, and they are the volunteer firefighters. They’re not doing it for a pay check, they’re doing it because someone has to. When you support that, you’re doing more than ticking a compliance box. You’re reinforcing purpose, meaning, and loyalty in your workforce.

If you need HR support, get in touch sandra@hrconsultingtas.com.au or 0408 408 225 

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