Worker fired for jury duty gets job back

Published 10:02 am Monday, September 8, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS  — A federal judge helped a woman get her job back after she was fired for having jury duty.

Lana Wallace told her boss when she showed up for a new job at Zion Early Childhood Center in Hopkins July 28 that she was on call for federal jury duty beginning in August. She was sent home the same day, then fired.

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis found out. He appointed an attorney from a large Minneapolis law firm to help her, noting that federal law prohibits firings because of jury duty.

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Attorney William Manning wrote to the minister of the church that runs the daycare.

Wallace was rehired with back pay on Aug. 22.

The Rev. Randall Neal acknowledges the church made a mistake.