Terminated employee of start-up company has employment agreement that includes stock options. Can any value be applied to those options if it is a privately held company and the stocks are not yet worth anything? Must the employee be recompensed for possible future value?

I dont understand your queston. Is it a valuation issue or are u asking if there is a taxation event? Also stock options are issued pursuant to written programs in which the questions you ask are defined in the document.

Let me try again - Can any value be placed on stock options that may be worth something in the future but at present have no value? This is in terms of an employee seeking damages regarding breach of employment contract. Employment contract promised future stock options as part of compensation.

The answer is yes but the question is what standard-- Stock options can be valued at any time befor expiraton under several different financial formulas the most common being the Black Sholes formula. The Stock option program may also have a formula.