My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: New Jersey

I am allotted 17 days off from work (10 vacation day, 5 sick days, 2 personal days) to be reallocated every anniversary year. Due to unusual circumstances (sickness of a child and hospitalization of a parent), I've been out a total of 10 days (5 days vacation used for mother's hospitalization and 5 days in relation to my daughter's illness) in just two months. Today, I received an email from my employer telling me the following:

"If you need more days off before your 6 month date, I’m sorry but we’ll need to dock your pay."

And when I asked for clarification, I was given the following response:

"This is a small office, and every absence is felt. Most organizations use a formula that assigns a certain number of hours accrued during each pay period based on time with the company. We have already made a concession by allowing you to take time from the current year in your previous year. I think you can understand it is excessive to apply 2 full weeks (10 days) off only 1 ½ months into your current year, and that we can’t extend beyond that, until you’ve completed 6 months."

I understand that NJ law doesn't require employers to give their employees time off work, but if it's a benefit that has been given an employee, can an employer just say they won't pay said employee for time off even though that said employee has the accrued time off to use? I have 7 days left for the year, am I really not entitled to use it?