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What is Community Service Leave? When does it apply?

Annual Leave

18 Feb 2026 (Last updated 26 Feb 2026)

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There may be times when one or more of your employees need to take community service leave. This is time off for jury service, firefighting, or to help with some other emergency or natural disaster such as a flood or following a severe storm or cyclone.

When can an employee take community service leave?

If an employee intends to take community service leave, they must notify you as soon as possible of their expected absence period. They should provide evidence the reason for their absence is to engage in an eligible community service activity.

Eligible types of community service are:

  • Jury service.
  • Voluntary emergency management conducted by a state or territory.
  • Firefighting, civil defence or rescue services for emergencies or natural disasters, such as the State Emergency Service (SES), Country Fire Association (CFA), or Rural Fire Service (RFS).

The period of community service leave includes travel to the activity, time spent doing it, and time for reasonable rest and recovery afterwards. Community service leave does not accrue because it depends on events only.

There is no limit to how much community service leave someone takes, as long as it is eligible and reasonable. All your employees, including casuals, are entitled to unpaid community service leave.

Jury service

Jury service is the only form of community service leave that is paid. When employees are required to take leave for jury service or attend court for jury selection, they receive jury service pay from the government.

In many states as an employer, you are obligated to pay an employee's normal wage or top up the government payment amount to their usual pay. This often applies for up to the first 10 days of a trial.

This is an example of how top up works:

  • Your permanent employee earns a usual weekly base rate of $700,
  • The government pays $250 per week for jury service,
  • You top up their pay by $450,

Each state and territory will have their own payment amounts. This will vary based on the length of service. You should check with your state legislation to ensure you meet your payment obligations to employees attending jury service.

You can ask your employee for evidence showing they have taken all steps to get the full amount of jury service pay and evidence of how much pay they received in the first two weeks. If a state law provides for paid community service leave that is more generous than the National Employment Standards, then the generous amount applies. Please see our Jury Service guide for more information.

What if my employee is a witness not a juror?

An employee who is required to attend court as witnesses is not entitled to community service leave. When an employee needs to attend court as a witness and not for jury service, they can take paid annual leave by agreement or request unpaid leave for the time they will be absent from work.

Peninsula's advisers are experts in helping you manage community service leave effectively. For peace of mind, you can call our 24-hour Advice Line.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute as business or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. It does not take into consideration your specific business, industry or circumstances. You should seek legal or other professional advice regarding matters as they relate to you or your business. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Peninsula Group disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions contained in this information or any failure to update or correct this information. It is your responsibility to assess and verify the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the information in this article.

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