All laws pertaining to Alabama laws cover only public sector workers. Private sector employees are covered under the FMLA and do not receive additional benefits from the state of Alabama. Qualified public sector employees include both civil servants and “unclassified services” with a number of exceptions:
- Officers elected by popular vote
- Officials and employees of the Legislative Assembly
- Officers, officers and employees of county courts, county clerks of jurors and deputy voters
- Members of boards and commissions, as indicated, and self-replicate
- The department heads required by law are appointed by the governor or by boards or contracts with the approval of the governor
- All officers and employees of public higher education institutions, teacher training institutions and regular schools
- All officers and staff of all educational, eleonistic and correctional institutions that are governed by the boards of trustees
- Secondary agricultural schools and voluntary schools
- All help from prisoners in all charitable, criminal, and correctional institutions
- All authorized and ensigns and military personnel of the National Guard and Naval Police of the state in their military and naval classes
- The private secretary of the governor and the staff of the governor’s headquarters paid exclusively from the governor’s emergency or contingent funds.
- The staff of the Department of State Docks was engaged in railway services and was subject to the provisions of Congress, known as the Law on Railway Labor.
Compared to FMLA, Alabama provides more flexibility when using sick leave. Employees who are entitled to sick leave may receive four hours of leave for every two weeks of service, up to 150 days. Employees can use sick leave after death or care for a sick member of his / her closest family. An employee can also take sick leave if the person is not a direct family member, but the employee has “extraordinarily strong personal connections with this person”. If they are approved, permanent employees can also receive extended sick leave if the employee does not have a sick leave and needs it. All of these benefits are unparalleled in the FMLA and are exclusive to the Alabama Exit Act.
Alabama law states that all pregnant women must work until they are disabled as a result of pregnancy and must return to work as soon as they are no longer disabled. FMLA provides additional benefits by allowing you to use its 12 unpaid work days “for giving birth and caring for a newborn baby.”
Alabama offers qualifying leave for recruited workers (up to three days in case all approved sick leave is exhausted), donated leave (workers can donate to other workers who are equal to or less than wages who require catastrophic sick leave or maternity leave ), leave unpaid (for up to one year, with the possibility of return, if attendance of an employee is “necessary for effective business of the state”), mandatory annual leave / leave without payment you (employees may be required to use accumulated leave if they cannot work for a number of reasons), and also educational leave (permanent employees can receive full or partial pay if their course work is directly related to improving the “employee” of their current work "). All of these types of vacation are exclusive to Alabama and have no equivalent in the FMLA.
Alabama also provides 21 days of paid leave to active members of the service during all days when they participate in military training related to the Alabama National Guard, Alabama Naval Police, Army Reserve, Naval Reserve, Naval Reserve, Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve. This leave is also exceptional for Alabama - only the FMLA provides leave to employees with a direct family in the military who have been seriously injured or ill.
