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

In December I applied, interviewed, and was hired for a part time position at an under construction restaurant as a bartender. I was hired by the owner and with the understanding that my availability was weekends only due to my 9-5 job.

I was sent an offer letter by email. I was sent a link to their HR portal and also completed my I9 and W4.

In January there was an email sent about a staff training session. I replied that I wasn’t able to attend due to my job. After 3 weeks and multiple emails I finally got a reply that it was ok and there would be a makeup training.

After a long time of radio silence I emailed the owner again inquiring the status. The restaurant still was not close to opening. Somehow I didn’t receive an email regarding the second training session which ended up also being at a time I couldn’t attend. When I inquired about the status and found out about the missed training the owner told me that because I didn’t show up to the training he assumed I “changed my mind” and took me off the employee “roster”.

I let him know that wasn’t the case. I simply hadn’t received the email and also he has my availability so I wouldn’t have been there regardless. He re-sent me the link to the HR portal to submit my tax documents again. That was a few weeks ago and I’ve yet to hear any word from him. The restaurant is opening next week finally and I can still login to the HR portal and see my name on the list of employees with my job title and my personal phone number, and see my other info.

My emails have gone unanswered and I’m sitting here assuming that the owner doesn’t want me to work for him. I’m not sure what’s going on or if I have any rights under employment law to basically say “hey you hired me why won’t you let me work?”

It’s not the end of the world if I don’t end up working there. The extra income would be nice. But I’ve been in limbo for over 3 months and I feel like if this guy doesn’t want me as an employee he should at least have to formalize it somehow much the way they did with my hiring.