Thrive Affordable Vet Care isn’t entitled to summary judgment on a support staff recruiter’ s retaliatory discharge claim under Section 31-51q of the Connecticut General Statutes, which extends free speech protections to private workplaces, arising from her posting a meme on Facebook that the employer deemed offensive to transgender persons and Native Americans, a federal district court ruled. She plausibly alleged she engaged in protected speech, and that there was a causal relationship between her speech and her termination three days later. Genuine issues of fact exist on the issue of pretext that preclude summary judgment, the court ruled, because ...

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