Time off for public duties when rota software plans the shifts (UK)

Many employees hold a public role alongside their job: they sit as magistrates, serve as local councillors, govern a school or sit on a statutory tribunal. The law requires employers to let them take a reasonable amount of time off to do it. Rota and absence software rarely has a category for this, so the time ends up booked as holiday, unpaid absence or sickness, or is simply refused because the shift pattern does not allow it. This page sets out the rules in Great Britain and what systems should do. It is for employees and for employers.

The short answer: under section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer must permit an employee who holds certain public offices or sits on certain public bodies to take time off during working hours for those duties. How much time, and when, is what is reasonable in all the circumstances. The section does not require the time to be paid. If the employer fails to permit it, the employee can complain to an employment tribunal.

Which roles are covered

The right covers an employee who is (s50(1) and (2)):

• a justice of the peace (magistrate);
• a member of a local authority, which includes local councils, the Common Council of the City of London, a National Park authority and the Broads Authority (s50(5));
• a member of a statutory tribunal;
• a member of an independent monitoring board for a prison, a prison visiting committee or certain immigration visiting committees and lay observer panels;
• a member of a relevant health body, such as an NHS trust, an NHS foundation trust, an integrated care board or a Health Board in Scotland (s50(8));
• a member of a relevant education body, such as the governing body of a maintained school or a further or higher education corporation (s50(9));
• a member of the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or Scottish Water.

For the bodies, the time off is for attending meetings of the body and its committees, and for other things the body approves for carrying out its functions (s50(3)). For a council with an executive, it also covers executive meetings and executive work (s50(3)(c)).

How much time off

There is no fixed number of days. The amount, the occasions and any conditions are those that are reasonable in all the circumstances, having regard in particular to how much time the role and the particular duty need, how much time off the employee has already had for public duties and for trade union duties and activities, and the circumstances of the employer's business and the effect of the absence (s50(4)). That is a judgment about the individual case. A system that applies a flat cap, or that refuses any request clashing with a rostered shift, is not making that judgment. Working hours means any time the employee is required by the contract to be at work (s50(11)).

Pay

Section 50 requires the employer to permit time off; it says nothing about pay. Whether the time is paid depends on the contract or the employer's policy. Payroll should apply that policy consistently and should not code the absence as sickness or holiday unless the employee has chosen to use holiday.

Complaints

An employee whose employer has failed to permit time off as section 50 requires can complain to an employment tribunal, which must make a declaration if the complaint is well founded and may award just and equitable compensation (s51). Where the failure happened on or after 1 October 2026 the time limit is six months, up from three, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, with early conciliation through Acas first.

Jury service is different

Jury service is not in section 50. It has its own protection instead: an employee has the right not to suffer a detriment for being summoned or for being absent to attend (s43M), and a dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair (s98B) unless the employer shows the absence was likely to cause substantial injury to the business, raised that with the employee, and the employee unreasonably failed to apply to be excused or to defer. Not paying wages for jury service is not a detriment unless the contract gives a right to be paid (s43M(3)). An attendance score that counts jury service against the employee carries obvious risk.

Practical steps

• Employers: add a public duties absence type and a separate jury service type, both outside sickness and holiday and outside attendance triggers. Route requests to a manager who weighs the s50(4) factors rather than letting the rota engine refuse clashes automatically. Record the policy on pay so payroll applies it the same way to everyone.
• Employees: tell your employer about the role and give as much notice of meetings and sittings as you can, in writing. If a request is refused, ask for the reason. For emergencies at home, see time off for dependants; for how leave and pay interact more generally, see holiday pay.

Section 50 extends to England, Wales and Scotland. This page is general information on the law in Great Britain as at 1 November 2026, not legal advice.