Emerging Questions for Connecticut’s Employee Free Speech Statute
Pullman & Comley attorney Zachary D. Schurin, who practices in the firm’s Labor and Employment and Education Law practices, authored an article for Connecticut Lawyer on the state’s employee free speech statute, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-51q, which was first passed 40 years ago. Connecticut’s law affords broad free speech protections to both public and private sector employees.
Entitled “Emerging Questions for Connecticut’s Employee Free Speech Statute,” the article covers some of the questions posed by the statute, including what counts as speech addressing “Official Dishonesty, Deliberately Unconstitutional Action, Other Serious Wrongdoing, or Threats to Health and Safety”; what is employee “discipline” for purposes of Section 31-5q; and the meaning of “threatened” discipline.
“As we advance into the social media age and in an era of intense political polarization, it stands to reason that employee speech issues will play an even more prominent role in the workplace,” Zach writes. “As disputes arise, Connecticut judges and lawyers will continue to wrestle with new and old questions posed by Section 31-51q.”
To read the full article, please click the link in the Related Materials below.