I guess this bold statement the company made could be legally investigated, but this employee would have to invest quite a lot of energy for the investigation to go anywhere. It depends on whether he thinks he could benefit from it (if you know what I mean), and I believe he can.
Few things are worse than a passive-aggressive work environment. In this type of story, whether it's posted on Reddit, X, or even TikTok, people seem to react by commenting something along the lines of: 'Find another job' or 'Just quit; they don't deserve you', as if it were that simple.
Jobs are not easy to find in this economy. Imagine simply leaving your job and applying for new ones while rent is due and you're living off a credit card. Life is definitely not that simple. You have to evaluate a lot of variables when you try to get a new job: whether it pays enough, whether it's remote or not, whether it's freelance, whether it has other benefits; and, on top of all that, we'd have to be contacted at least for an interview. Sometimes it's easier to keep our job and try to make the best of it, even if it's not perfect.
If he considers the job worth keeping, he could take the petty route and use every paid time off that doesn't collide with a blackout date, further complicating the relationship with his bosses, or he could start grieving the unlimited PTO he thought he was going to have. Or, well, if he has the resources, the time, and the energy, he could take this to court and make some money off it? I guess.