Legal Question in Employment Law in California

If your supervisor's intent was to deprive you of vacation hours you earned and is now retaliating against you for complaining about his attempt to have you forfeit those hours, I would say, no, that is not legal. But before you take this as gospel, you should explain the entire circumstance and show the write-up to an employment law attorney for a more informed opinion. If you feel strongly enough about it, the attorney could write to the company warning them not to retaliate against you for your efforts to be credited for wages you earned.

Legal? Of course. IF the company actually denied you compensation or leave benefits, you could have filed a claim for them, but HR corrected him. In general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or fired any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice, other than for illegal discrimination, harassment or retaliation under the ADA disability, Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes. The employee's goal should be to keep the employer happy.

I disagree with Mr. Nelson. While what he states is correct in general, it does not apply to HR records. An employee has a right to see their HR records, including vacation accounting. Depriving them of that right, whether by refusing access or retaliating for exercising the right, is illegal.