use Data::Dumper;

                # Just grabbing the values of these so that
                # strict will cope with them.
my $my_today_int = $today_int;
my $my_no_call_requested_days = $no_call_requested_days;
my $my_i = $i;
my $my_user_id = $user_id;
print STDERR Dumper($my_today_int, $my_i, $my_user_id);
print STDERR Dumper($my_no_call_requested_days);
{
        use strict;
        my @today = @{$my_no_call_requested_days->{$my_today_int}};
        print STDERR "today:\n", Dumper(@today);

        my $ref = $today[$my_i];
        print STDERR "ref:\n", Dumper($ref);

        my $employee_id = $ref->{'employee_id'};
        print STDERR "employee_id: [$employee_id]\n";

        if($employee_id eq $my_user_id)  # should be "=="
        {
                print "They are the same!\n";
        }
}