Q: If I get fired does the company I work for have to pay me for any accrued vacation

A: It seems from what you've said that you don't "earn" the vacation time until after you have worked for one year. This means that the vacation pay doesn't "accrue" until after you have been employed for one full year. In other words, the vacation pay only becomes "vested" (i.e. you have the right to it) once you have worked a full year.

I've seen many instances where an employee is terminated just prior to the vesting of their benefits. Some unscrupulous employers will make up reasons to terminate employees to prevent them from becoming vested in their benefits. You may have become such a victim. The issue usually turns on the question whether the employer terminates the employee to prevent them from getting vested in their benefits. There are remedies available to employees such as yourself, but you will need an experienced employment law lawyer to help you make your case. You will need strong evidence that you were a good employee without any issues and should have been either kept on the job or not terminated just prior to getting vested benefits. Your lawyer will have to dig up good evidence that the employer intended to prevent you from becoming vested in your employee benefits. However, in many such cases, they are so difficult to win anything meaningful because of the Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Few lawyers will take on such cases because of their difficulty in obtaining justice for their clients.