Damages - Articles & Videos

Equity compensation, whether stock options, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), or share awards, is a potentially lucrative component of an employee’s compensation package. When an employee is wrongfully dismissed, losing out on unvested equity can translate to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. But while determining whether an employee is entitled to lost equity is critical, a second, equally important question remains: how exactly do courts determine the monetary value of those lost shares? 

On August 7, 2026, the Court of Appeal for Ontario released its highly anticipated decision in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd. This decision makes it clear that termination provisions in Restricted Stock Unit (“RSU”) agreements will not be enforceable if they attempt to contract out of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”), including by requiring immediate forfeiture on termination and thereby altering a “term or condition of employment” during the statutory notice period.

We always caution our clients that employment law is constantly changing. Just when you think the law on an issue is settled, a decision comes along that turns back the clock. That is exactly what happened in the recent Ontario Superior Court decision Wilsher v. Olympic Wholesale (“Wilsher”).

As we often see in litigation, doubling down on a losing hand doesn’t just waste time, it can cost a lot of money. In the recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Adelman v. IBM Canada Limited (“Adelman”), the employee successfully sued for wrongful dismissal, securing $682,151.18 in damages.

Although the pandemic might seem far in the past, we are still seeing the outcome of cases brought forward on issues that arose during this tumultuous period. In a recent decision out of Alberta, the court ruled that an employer had wrongfully dismissed an employee who refused to comply with the employer’s COVID-19 vaccination policy on religious grounds.

Our HR Law Eras Tour “set list” takes us through 2024’s notable decisions and developments, with the goal of providing employers and employees with a map of the current landscape that allows them to navigate the challenges ahead.

Whether you are an employer or an employee, you have rights and obligations at each stage of the relationship and you do not have to necessarily “tolerate” ghosting from the other side.

A further expansion to the concept of damages recently happened in Khanom v. Idealogic PDS Inc., where damages were rewarded for “inconvenience” resulting from the employer’s conduct.

In wrongful dismissal lawsuits, the former employee’s medical condition can sometimes become an issue for the Court to consider. To what extent can the employer test this medical condition through a Court-ordered independent medical examination of the employee?

Notice periods are getting longer and courts are open to awarding moral, aggravated, and punitive damages in wrongful dismissal claims.