A UK-based nurse, Mary Onuoha, has sued a hospital where she worked for sacking her over her refusal to take off or conceal a cross necklace she wears around her neck, Christian headlines has reported.
She instituted a suit against the hospital at the Croydon Employment Tribunal on October 5 challenging her sack.
She claimed she was bullied out of her job and treated like a criminal for wearing a cross around her neck.
The nurse is challenging Croydon University Hospital, South London, on grounds of harassment, victimisation, direct and indirect discrimination, and constructive and unfair dismissal. She is being represented by the UK religious liberty group, Christian Concern.
Onuoha, a 61 years old Nigerian national, had been worked with Croydon since 2002.
She Onuoha relocated from Nigeria to UK in 1998 to pursue a career in the medical field after her brother died back home due to lack of medical care. She had been a nurse in Nigeria.
While working in the hospital she would wear a plain gold cross around her neck which did not initially attract any complaint but instead attracted compliments.
But in 2015, the hospital management asked Onuoha to remove the cross or cover it while at work because of safety concerns.
She however refused to yield to the pressure from the management because she believed it was an attack on her faith.
The nurse said she refused because adherents of other religions were never directed to remove their necklaces and bracelets.
The pressure persisted to the extent that during a surgery she was supervising in 2018, a hospital manager asked Onuoha to conceal her cross or remove it but she refused to do so.
In 2020, the hospital management demoted Onuoha from her position as a nurse to a receptionist and also warned her that an internal investigation would be put in place if she failed to remove the cross or conceal it.
In June of that year, after investigation, the nurse was forced to take a “stress leave” as a result of mounting pressure from the authorities of the hospital. She had no alternative but to resign.
“This has always been an attack on my faith. My cross has been with me for 40 years. It is part of me and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm,” Onuoha had reportedly told International Christian Concern.
“Patients often say to me, ‘I really like your cross.’ They always respond to it in a positive way, and that gives me joy and makes me feel happy. I am proud to wear it as I know God loves me so much and went through this pain for me.
“From a young age, I naturally always wanted to care for people. It was in my blood. All I have ever wanted is to be a nurse and to be true to my faith. I am strong woman, but I have been treated like a criminal. I love my job, but I am not prepared to compromise my faith for it, and neither should other Christian (National Health Service) staff in this country.”
Onuoha said there are Muslim staff of the hospital who go to mosque four times a day yet nothing is done to them.
She added that Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists, and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre but nobody harasses them.
“Yet my small cross around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job,” Onuoha said.