Community Service Leave: Jury Duty, Emergency Services & Voluntary Work
Australian employees are entitled to community service leave for jury duty (with make-up pay) and emergency service volunteering. Know your rights — your employer cannot refuse.
Jury duty: paid make-up pay while you serve
Under the Fair Work Act 2009, all employees (except casual employees) who are required to attend jury duty are entitled to make-up pay for the first 10 days of jury selection and service. Make-up pay is the difference between your base rate of pay and any jury duty payment you receive from the court. For example, if your normal daily pay is $300 and the court pays you $100 per day for jury service, your employer must pay you the $200 difference. If the court pays you nothing, your employer pays your full base rate. After the first 10 days, the entitlement to make-up pay depends on your award or enterprise agreement — some provide ongoing make-up pay for the duration of service, while others do not. Regardless of make-up pay, all employees (including casuals) are entitled to unpaid leave for the entire duration of jury service. Your employer cannot terminate you, reduce your hours, or take adverse action because you are serving on a jury. You must provide your employer with evidence of jury duty attendance — typically the summons and any attendance certificates issued by the court.
Emergency service volunteering: unpaid leave entitlement
Employees who engage in eligible voluntary emergency management activities are entitled to community service leave for the duration of the activity, plus reasonable travel and rest time. This leave is unpaid under the NES, although some awards, enterprise agreements, and employer policies provide paid emergency service leave. The entitlement applies to all employees — full-time, part-time, and casual. There is no cap on the amount of community service leave for emergency activities. If you are called out repeatedly during a bushfire season, flood event, or other emergency, you are entitled to leave for each occasion. Your employer cannot refuse the leave or take adverse action against you for taking it. To access the leave, you must notify your employer as soon as practicable that you need to be absent and provide an estimate of how long you expect to be away. After the activity, you should provide evidence of your participation — typically a letter or certificate from the emergency service organisation confirming the dates and times of your attendance.
What counts as an eligible emergency activity
Community service leave for emergency management covers a range of activities, but not all volunteering qualifies. To be eligible, the activity must involve dealing with an emergency or natural disaster, and the employee must be a member of or have a member-like association with a recognised emergency management body. This includes volunteer firefighters (CFA, RFS, CFS, DFES), State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers, volunteer ambulance officers, volunteer marine rescue, and civil defence volunteers. The activity itself must be a direct emergency response — attending a fire, flood, storm, earthquake, or other disaster event. It also includes reasonable activities related to the emergency such as training that is required to perform emergency duties. However, general volunteering for a community organisation, attending routine meetings, or performing non-emergency tasks for an emergency body typically do not qualify for community service leave. If your emergency service role involves regular standby or on-call duties, check your award or agreement — some provide specific entitlements for these situations beyond the NES minimum.
Evidence requirements for community service leave
Employers can request evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the leave was taken for a genuine community service activity. For jury duty, you should provide a copy of your jury summons and any attendance certificates or notices from the court confirming the dates you attended. Most courts provide attendance certificates automatically. For emergency service volunteering, acceptable evidence includes a letter or certificate from the emergency service organisation (CFA, SES, RFS, etc.) confirming your membership and the dates and times of the emergency activity. A deployment notice, incident report extract, or sign-on/sign-off records from the emergency event would also suffice. If you were called out urgently and could not collect documentation at the time, you can provide the evidence after returning to work. Evidence does not need to be provided before the leave is taken — particularly in emergency situations where advance notice is impossible. Your employer should accept reasonable documentation and should not impose evidence requirements that would discourage employees from volunteering for emergency services.
Your employer cannot refuse community service leave
Community service leave is a legal entitlement under the National Employment Standards. Your employer cannot refuse a request for community service leave if you meet the qualifying criteria. They cannot require you to take annual leave or personal leave instead of community service leave. They cannot issue you with a warning, reduce your hours, change your roster disadvantageously, or terminate your employment because you took community service leave. Doing so would constitute adverse action under the general protections provisions of the Fair Work Act, which carries significant penalties — up to $19,800 per contravention for an individual and $99,000 for a company (2026 penalty units). If your employer refuses your community service leave or takes adverse action against you, document the refusal in writing and contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 for advice. You can also make a general protections application with the Fair Work Commission. In practice, most employers are supportive of jury duty and emergency volunteering. If you experience pushback, a polite reference to your NES entitlement and the Fair Work Act section 108-112 usually resolves the issue. Use our Leave Entitlements Calculator to check all your leave rights in one place.
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General information and estimates only — not legal, financial, or tax advice. Always verify with the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified professional.
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