Who Qualifies for FMLA in Alabama and Georgia?

When an employee needs time away from work because of a serious health condition, a new child, or a family member’s medical needs, the fear of losing a job can make an already difficult situation even harder. The Family and Medical Leave Act, commonly called the FMLA, gives qualifying employees important protections when they need leave for certain family and medical reasons.

The federal FMLA rules are the same in Alabama and Georgia, but state law can change the leave available to you. Alabama has specific birth and adoption protections and paid parental leave for eligible public employees. Georgia protects certain uses of earned sick leave and provides separate parental and maternal birth benefits for eligible public employees. Understanding how these laws fit together can help you protect your income and your FMLA rights.

What Is FMLA Leave?

The FMLA gives eligible employees of covered employers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during 12 months for qualifying family and medical reasons.

The law also generally requires an employer to continue an employee’s group health benefits under the same conditions that would apply if the employee had continued working. When the employee returns from qualifying FMLA leave, the employer generally must restore the employee to the same or a virtually identical position.

Pay and job protection are separate questions. An employer’s paid-leave policy or a state benefit may provide income during an FMLA absence, but receiving paid leave does not automatically increase the amount of FMLA leave available.

Who Qualifies For FMLA?

The federal FMLA eligibility requirements generally apply to employees in both states. An employee must:

• Work for a covered employer.
• Have worked for that employer for at least 12 months.
• Have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before the requested leave begins.
• Work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

The 12 months of employment generally do not have to be consecutive. The 1,250-hour requirement, however, generally counts only hours actually worked, rather than vacation, sick leave, or other paid or unpaid leave.

Which Employers Are Covered?

The FMLA generally covers private employers that have at least 50 employees during at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year.

State and local public agencies and public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered regardless of their size. However, employer coverage alone does not make every employee eligible; the individual service, hours, and worksite requirements generally still apply.

Because employer coverage can depend on the circumstances, an employee should not assume that a workplace is exempt simply because the company has fewer than 50 employees at one particular location.

What If I Work Near the State Line or From Home?

The 50-employee worksite test can include nearby locations of the same employer across the Alabama–Georgia border. For example, a worker in Columbus, Georgia, may need to count coworkers at the employer’s Phenix City, Alabama, location. The state line does not end the count.

Under the federal worksite rule, the 75 miles generally follow the shortest surface transportation route. For someone working from home, the relevant worksite is generally the office to which the employee reports or from which assignments are made, rather than the employee’s home.

What Does FMLA Cover in Both States?

The federal FMLA covers several reasons for leave when the eligibility requirements are met:

• Your own serious health condition that prevents you from performing your job.
• Care for your spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition.
• Birth and bonding with a newborn, or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, within the first year.
• Certain needs arising from a spouse’s, child’s, or parent’s covered active military duty. An eligible spouse, child, parent, or next of kin may also take up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.

For ordinary family-care leave, a child generally must be under 18, or an adult who cannot care for themselves because of a disability.

A serious health condition generally involves inpatient care or qualifying continuing treatment. It can include physical or mental health conditions. Medically necessary leave may be taken intermittently or on a reduced schedule; intermittent leave solely for bonding generally requires the employer’s agreement.

What Additional Leave Rights Does Alabama Law Provide?

Alabama’s state rules distinguish between employees of covered businesses and employees eligible for public-sector benefits. The public paid parental leave benefit described below does not apply to every Alabama worker.

Birth and Adoption Leave for Employees of Covered Employers

Under the Adoption Promotion Act, Alabama Code § 25-1-61, covered employers must provide eligible employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth and care of a child or an adoption placement within the first year. The law uses the FMLA’s definitions of employer and eligible employee, and the leave runs concurrently with applicable federal leave.

There is also a specific paid-adoption rule: a covered employer that provides paid leave for birth and care must provide an eligible adoptive employee the lesser of equivalent paid leave or two weeks. If both adoptive parents work for that employer, the statute requires this paid benefit for only one. It does not require every private employer to establish paid parental leave.

Foreseeable adoption leave generally requires 30 days’ notice, or notice as practicable when placement occurs sooner. Intermittent use requires agreement, and the employer may not penalize an employee for exercising these rights.

Paid Parental Leave for Eligible Alabama Public Employees

The Alabama Public Employee Paid Parental Leave Act of 2025 applies to qualifying events on or after July 1, 2025. It provides eight weeks for eligible female employees and two weeks for eligible male employees in connection with a birth, qualifying stillbirth, or qualifying miscarriage. An eligible employee adopting a child age three or younger can receive eight weeks; when both adoptive parents qualify, one receives eight weeks and the other two.

The statute covers specified state employees, full-time local education agency employees, and Alabama Community College System employees, with at least 12 consecutive months of qualifying employment immediately before the event. Benefits are paid at 100% of base pay. The law’s miscarriage definition begins at 12 weeks’ gestation and requires medical confirmation; an earlier loss may still warrant FMLA or another form of leave.

Employees must submit a written leave plan and generally agree to remain employed for at least eight weeks after all leave connected to the event ends. A qualifying health-related inability to return may justify a waiver; failure to honor the agreement can allow the employer to recover pay under the statute. State paid parental leave and applicable FMLA leave run at the same time.

What Alabama School Employees Should Check

Alabama’s education rule lets qualifying full-time certified and noncertified employees count continuous employment or pay status with any Alabama local education agency toward the 12-month requirement. A move between districts therefore does not necessarily restart the clock. The rule generally requires a written leave plan at least 30 days beforehand, allows an emergency exception, and does not require exhausting accrued sick or annual leave first.

The statute also protects an eligible teacher’s return to the grade taught before parental leave unless the employee agrees otherwise. This is a specific state protection to check if a reassignment follows leave.

What Additional Leave Rights Does Georgia Law Provide?

Georgia’s rules address two different needs: using earned sick leave for family care and receiving paid leave as an eligible public employee. The eligibility rules differ from federal FMLA requirements.

Using Earned Sick Leave to Care for Family

Under the Georgia Family Care Act, O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10, employees working at least 30 hours per week for an employer with at least 25 employees can generally use up to five days of earned sick leave per calendar year to care for an immediate family member, if the employer provides sick leave.

Covered relatives include a child, spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, and dependents shown on the employee’s most recent tax return. The rule can therefore help a qualifying worker at a 35-employee private business outside ordinary FMLA coverage. Its family definition is also broader than the usual FMLA family-care categories.

These are existing sick days, not five new days that every employer must provide. Employees must have earned the leave and follow the sick-leave policy. Employers offering an employee stock ownership plan are exempt. The act does not create a new cause of action against an employer, so a denied request requires assessing other applicable protections and remedies.

Paid Parental Leave for Eligible Georgia Public Employees

Georgia provides eligible full-time state and local education agency employees up to 240 hours of paid parental leave in a rolling 12-month period, equivalent to six 40-hour workweeks. Qualifying events are birth of the employee’s child or placement of a minor child for adoption or foster care. Eligible parents can use the benefit regardless of sex.

Under Georgia’s executive branch eligibility guidance, full-time salaried employees need six continuous months of employment; full-time hourly employees must have worked at least 700 hours in the six months immediately before the requested leave. Full-time generally means at least 30 hours per week in continuing employment. Seasonal, student, intermittent, and part-time employment do not qualify.

This can make a public employee eligible for state paid leave before becoming eligible for FMLA. The leave must be used within 12 months of the qualifying event. Paid parental leave does not cover prenatal appointments or pregnancy-related incapacity before birth, although FMLA, accrued leave, or another protection may apply.

Maternal Birth Leave Added in July 2026

Effective July 1, 2026, Georgia added up to 120 hours of paid maternal birth leave for eligible full-time state and local education agency employees who give birth. It must be taken during the three weeks immediately after childbirth and, if used, must come before paid parental leave. It is for physical recovery from childbirth and does not cover nonbirthing parents, adoption, or foster placement.

The executive branch applies the same six-month salaried and 700-hour hourly eligibility tests described above to maternal birth leave. Ask the agency to confirm how it coordinates these paid benefits with FMLA under its written policy; an eligible employee’s FMLA-qualifying absence must also be designated under federal rules. These benefits do not automatically add nine weeks to a full FMLA allowance. School employees should check their local education agency’s implementation rules.

What If I Do Not Qualify for FMLA?

A denial of FMLA eligibility does not settle every leave question. Check the state benefits above and your employer’s policy. In both states, employers with at least 15 employees generally must consider reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act when those laws apply. An accommodation may include unpaid leave for your own disability or pregnancy-related limitations, subject to the law’s requirements and undue-hardship standard.

What Protections Does FMLA Provide?

FMLA coverage provides more than permission to be absent from work. 

Job Protection

An employee who takes qualifying FMLA leave generally has the right to return to the same job or a virtually identical position.

An employer generally cannot use a worker’s protected FMLA leave as a reason to eliminate the employee’s position or otherwise punish the employee for exercising FMLA rights.

Health Insurance Protection

Employers generally must maintain an eligible employee’s group health insurance during FMLA leave under the same conditions that would apply if the employee continued working.

The employee generally remains responsible for paying the employee’s normal share of health insurance premiums.

Protection From Retaliation

The FMLA prohibits employers from interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of FMLA rights. It also prohibits employers from discharging or discriminating against an employee for opposing practices that violate the FMLA.

This means an employee who requests or takes qualifying FMLA leave should not be punished simply for exercising rights protected by federal law.

How to Request Leave and Protect Your Records

For a foreseeable birth, adoption or foster placement, or planned medical treatment, give at least 30 days’ notice when that much notice is practical. Otherwise, notify your employer as soon as practical. Explain the reason and expected timing, and follow the usual call-in procedures unless unusual circumstances prevent it. You do not need to mention FMLA by name when first requesting leave for a qualifying reason.

If your employer requests medical certification, you generally have at least 15 calendar days to provide it. Additional time may be required when diligent, good-faith efforts cannot meet that deadline.

Ask HR to confirm your FMLA eligibility, which state or employer benefit will pay you, whether the leaves overlap, and each end date. Keep the request, medical certifications, leave balances, benefit notices, written policies, and any discipline or reassignment records. For Alabama public employees, also retain the leave plan and return-to-work agreement.

Contact Barrett & Farahany About An FMLA Violation

If you were denied qualifying FMLA leave, disciplined for protected absences, terminated after requesting FMLA leave, or otherwise believe your FMLA rights were violated, contact Barrett & Farahany for help.

The attorneys at Barrett & Farahany represent employees in Georgia and Alabama and can review the circumstances of your situation, explain your potential rights, and discuss possible next steps.