If you are employed in Georgia, you may be protected under the federal Family and Medical Act. Your employer is only required to follow the act if it employs more than 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. You must also have worked for the employer for a minimum of 1,250 hours within 12 months. Like most other states, Georgia does not have a comparable law extending family leave benefits beyond what is required by federal law.
History
In 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted by the federal government to provide protection to workers needing to balance the obligations of family and work. Before enactment of the FMLA, any protection for a worker requiring extend leave to deal with a serious illness, whether personal or that of a close family member, was left up to the discretion of individual employers. Workers had no assurance that a request for leave would be treated consistently from one job to another or even within the same company. With the passage of the FMLA, a new labor law was established that gave employees working at larger companies job protection when needing unpaid leave to address a serious health condition.
State Family Leave Laws
After passage of the FMLA, some states enacted laws that gave greater protection to employees than required under the federal law. For example, although the FMLA only requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide unpaid family leave, in Maine the law requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide unpaid family leave. However, most states only follow the FMLA, such as Georgia as indicated by the information on family leave from the websites of its State and Department of Labor.
FMLA Benefits
If your Georgia employer is covered by the FMLA and you qualify for the benefits, you may take leave from your job for 12 weeks in any 12-month period for any of the following reasons: the birth of your child; the adoption by you or placement for foster care with you of a child; to care for your parent, spouse or child with a serious medical condition; or because you are unable to work due to a serious health condition. This leave can be used consecutively or intermittently. You must give your employer 30 days notice if the event requiring the leave is foreseeable. Your employer is entitled to a certification from a doctor regarding the need for the leave.
Job Security
After taking your family leave, you are entitled to return to the same or equivalent position you had with the company before your leave. You are also entitled to the same pay and benefits you had before you leave, but you must continue to pay your portion of the benefits during your leave. Your employer cannot terminate your leave even if the total number of company employees falls below 50 during your leave or during the time period that your leave was authorized.
Employees Not Covered by FMLA
If you work at a small business in Georgia, your rights regarding family leave are no better than the pre-1993 era before enactment of the FMLA. Despite this situation, some employees will have no choice but to take more than a couple of weeks off from work to deal with a family medical situation, such as a pregnant woman recovering from child birth. The best course of action in this situation is not to quit your job -- even though you are likely to be fired for excessive absenteeism. If you quit, you will be ineligible for unemployment benefits when you are able to return to work and may even miss an opportunity to return to your job.
