Alabama § 25-1-61 - Unpaid Family Leave for Eligible Employees.

§ 25-1-61. Unpaid Family Leave for Eligible Employees.

(a) For purposes of this section, the terms “eligible employee” and “employer” have the same meaning as in 29 U.S.C. § 2611.

(b)(1) An employer shall provide 12 weeks of unpaid family leave, to run concurrently with any other leave provided pursuant to federal law, to an eligible employee for the birth and care of a child born to that employee during the first year after the child’s birth, or for the care of a child placed with the employee in connection with adoption within one year of the placement of the child with the employee. Requests for additional family leave due to the adoption of an ill child or a child with a disability shall be considered on the same basis as comparable cases of complications accompanying the birth of a child of an employee. Nothing in this subsection shall require an employer to provide additional family leave to an eligible employee once the employee has exhausted the leave to which the employee is entitled under federal law.

(2) In any case in which the necessity for leave pursuant to this subsection is foreseeable based on an expected placement of a child with an employee in connection with an adoption, the employee, before the date the leave is to begin, shall provide his or her employer with at least 30 days’ notice of the employee’s intention to take the leave, except that if the date of placement requires leave to begin in less than 30 days, the employee shall provide notice as is practicable.

(c)(1) An employer who provides paid leave to an employee for the birth and care of a child born to that employee shall also provide the lesser of either equivalent paid leave or two-weeks paid leave to an employee for the care of a child placed with the employee in connection with adoption during the first year after the placement of the child with the employee.

(2) An employer is only required to provide paid leave benefits described in subdivision (1) to one of two different eligible employees if both employees would be using the benefits for the care of a child placed for adoption with both employees.

(d) An employer may not penalize an employee for exercising the rights provided by this section.

(e) Leave benefits accrued pursuant to this section may not be taken by an employee intermittently unless the employee and the employer agree otherwise.