SUBREDDIT: r/AskReddit
TITLE: Employer denying my sick leave before fiscal year  end
POST: I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.  

I work for a large, publicly traded company.  Our fiscal year end is 6/30/11.  As a California employee, my company gives us PTO and sick leave.  They are separate and sick leave does not carry over.  (Employees in other states only receive PTO, but the total # of hours are the same as my PTO + sick leave)  I took some sick leave this week, and noticed that it appears to be taken out of my sick leave for FY2012.  I had time remaining for FY2011 that I was trying to finish using up.  

I emailed HR and a "payroll specialist" emailed me back informing me that the last day to report PTO for FY2011 was 6/26 because the week of 6/27 is the beginning of another payroll period and signifies the first payroll period for FY2012.  The "payroll specialist" informed me that the sick time I reported earlier this week would be taken from my FY2012 hours.

Is this legal?  I understand how it is convenient for them to make these cutoffs, but am I entitled to the sick leave that i didnt take until this week?
TL;DR: 
Took sick leave during FY2011 but payroll schedule is already in FY2012, and subsiquenly lost sick leave from FY2011.  Is this legal?