I believe after you have agreed to a severance the employer can do whatever they want, include hire people. In addition, severance only applies if the employee has 5 years with the company. Even if they fire a person on discriminatory grounds 2 years pay is the most you can hope for. The point of severance is to take care of issues of wrongfull dissmissal.
Damages for Wrongful Dismissal
So, is it worth it to sue for wrongful dismissal? How much can you recover?
A court will compensate you for salary and benefits proved to have been lost during the reasonable notice period, minus any severance pay or notice you actually received.
Be aware that you have a duty to seek new employment after any employment dismissal and the courts will consider your efforts to do so. Any money you earned or should have been earned during the reasonable notice period will also be deducted from any judgment for damages.
For instance, if you are entitled to a reasonable notice period of eight months and only received eight weeks of notice before being terminated and you could have earned money at a new job during that reasonable notice period, a court would most likely calculate the damages to include eight months' salary and benefits. Benefits that the courts have awarded damages for include:
Bonuses
Stock options
Pension, insurance, medical plans
Moving expenses
Vacation pay
Other benefits which would have been earned if employment had continued.
Aside from compensating for lost salary and benefits during the reasonable notice period, courts may, in limited circumstances, compensate a terminated employee for an employer's extreme behaviour. Extreme behaviour includes causing mental distress, defamation or loss of reputation and assault, to name a few. As well, employees may be compensated for leaving a previous employer at the insistence of the employer who dismissed them.
