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Librarian Leave
Civil Duty Leave

CONTENTS

UNDERSTAND

Civil duty leave, or civil leave, is paid leave granted to monthly-paid employees to serve on jury duty, serve as trial witnesses, or to exercise other subpoenaed civil duties.

Eligibility

Librarians are eligible for civil leave immediately upon employment at the University.

Employees are generally not entitled to civil leave for civil legal actions that they initiate, or when named as defendants in a private legal action that is unrelated to their UW employment.

Compensation

Librarians will receive their regular UW pay while serving on jury duty or other subpoenaed civil obligations and must therefore return to the UW any outside compensation received. However, the librarian may retain the portion of payment that is necessary to offset expenses that the employee would not otherwise have incurred. For example, parking expenses at a courthouse or deposition location is an expense for which employees may retain payment. Generally, meals for which the employee would ordinarily be responsible and parking violation expenses are not considered reimbursable expenses.

Expenses related to meals and parking are generate the most questions relative to civil leave, however the employee’s supervisor may exercise reasonable discretion in determining whether the civil duty obligation has generated an expense for which retention of payment may be appropriate.

ACT

Requesting Civil Duty Leave

If you have received notice that you need to exercise a civil duty, please take the following steps to request civil leave:

  1. Provide your supervisor with a copy of the summons received from the city, county, state or federal government.
  2. Follow your department's normal leave request procedures to obtain written approval for use of civil leave.
  3. If approved, a copy of the approval is retained in your department file to support entries made in the Online Work Leave System (OWLS), or other authorized leave tracking system.

Reimbursing the UW for Civil Duty Compensation

To return the compensation received for exercising a civil duty, you should take the following steps:

  1. Endorse the check you received and give it to your department payroll coordinator.
  2. The payroll coordinator should photocopy the check for record keeping purposes and send the endorsed check to the payroll office with an explanatory note that indicates the your name, the date(s) of civil leave, and your employing department’s name and payroll unit code.

Librarian Leave Topics