At my current employer if you are 1 minute late on any given day, they take away half a sick day (you only get 3 a year sometimes more if you have a doctor's note), but you are expected to stay the whole day. You don't get that half a sick day back till it's been a year since you were 1 minute late. Which means if you are late once in Oct, Nov, and Dec you've lost a day and a half of sick time. If that's all you had left due to actually being sick at some point during the year, that means you can't be sick or late by one minute again till at least Oct of the next year. Is this legal?

I can't seem to find whether this is legal or not. This employer separates Vacation time from sick time. Hope someone can help me out with this. Thank you =)

In CA this matters. What city/town are you in?

I'm in Hayward California. I will provide any information needed for an answer to this. Thank you for the quick response