Can someone please give me some insight on alabama state law regarding FMLA. My father fell sick on Aug 1 after suffering a stroke. from this point on i missed a day here and there averaging about 2 every other weeks. I received a letter 2 weeks ago informing me that i haven't kept my average hours of 36 per week up and that if i didn't increase my hours i could be considered part-time and lose my benefits. The very next week on 2-5-06 my father passed away. We receive our vacation time in Jan of each year. However, i did not receive mine, when calling my coroporate office they inofrmed me that I should have filed a FMLA. No one including my supervisor informed me that I had to file this form. Can i be denied my benefits under these conditions. Keep in mind, i never took any consecutives days off from work, up until the death of my father. Do i have any rights in this situation? Also, i was able to keep my insurance just not my vacation time.

Yes, you could have requested intermittent fmla to care for a parent with a serious health condition.
If you were using fmla, it does not protect your salary or pto, but it will protect health benefits (therefore,your benefits would not have been in jepordy) Companies are not obligated to continue to accrue pto for employees out on fmla.

That said, I dont understand why you lost all of your vacation. Do you get vacation in January for that current year, or for accrued time of the previous year?

BTW, FMLA is a federal regulation.

And, did your employer know the reason behind your absences?

Yes, you could have requested intermittent fmla to care for a parent with a serious health condition.
If you were using fmla, it does not protect your salary or pto, but it will protect health benefits (therefore,your benefits would not have been in jepordy) Companies are not obligated to continue to accrue pto for employees out on fmla.

That said, I dont understand why you lost all of your vacation. Do you get vacation in January for that current year, or for accrued time of the previous year?

BTW, FMLA is a federal regulation.

Our vacation time is accrued from the previous year, so the hours i worked during 2005 were suppose to be given to me in Jan. 2006. when i called the office to find out why i had not receive my vac time i was then told that my hours have fell below an average of 36 a week. I explained to the corp office that my father had been terminally sick, but becasue i was not his soul provider, i did not file the FMLA. I was told by one individual at the corp office that i could possibly go back and file the FMLA, after talking to the benefits department, i was informed that my vacation time had been (taken) due to the fact that i fell below average 36 hours during the last quarter of the year. What i don 't understand, is why was ALL of my vacation taken and none of my other benefits. I uinderstand the fact that i can lose my vac hours because i didn't work an average of 36 hours the last quarter, but why did they not cut my insurance too? why was all of my vac hours taken away not just the ones that would have been accrued during that period? My was my insurance beenits not taken along with my vacation?!?!

Different benefits may have different requiremens in order to be eligible for them. How many hours you must work in order to qualify for insurance is determined by your insurance plan documents. How many hours you need to work before getting vacation may very well be different. Also generally you would need to dip below the minimum number of hours per week on a regular basis for several weeks before you would be inelgible for insurance. That can't change week by week but vacation time can.

If you didn't file for FMLA then you aren't afforded the protection of FMLA. Even if you had FMLA protection, your employer was only required to treat you as any other person on leave as far as leave accruals and could have used your vacation time to cover your time off.

I do not agree with the other writers; if the Company did not provide you notice, pursuant to Section 301 of the Family Medical leave Act, but did know the reasons you were missing and that these reasons may have been protected by the FMLA, then you very well may have a claim against them. Also, you need to look at how they handle casual absences regarding the benefits; for example, do they deny other employees PTO or other benefits for such absences? If not, then they may not deny you those benefits for exercising your rights under the FMLA.