61-year-old nurse Mary Onuoha was finally exonerated after a cruel two-year campaign of ruthless bullying. An employment tribunal finally ruled that the hospital where she worked “harassed and directly discriminated” against her.
Her story is particularly significant, given that she once lived in Nigeria, where a Muslim genocide against Christians is raging. She knows Christian persecution at its worst firsthand. Now she lives in Britain, where she should be free from it. Her most prized possession is her little gold cross, one she wore everyday since childhood — no doubt a reminder of the suffering of fellow Christians in her country of origin.
Mary Onuoha had to go off work on stress leave over her little cross (little more than the size of a fingernail), which was said by her bosses to “harbor bacteria.” But some of her Muslim colleagues wore their hijabs freely and “went to mosque four times a day” without queries.
Onuoha was ultimately let go after exhausting bullying from hospital superiors. But she was ultimately rewarded for her perseverance. According to Christian Concern, linked to Christian Legal Center Organization:
In a landmark ruling…an Employment Tribunal has ruled that an NHS Trust harassed and directly discriminated against a Christian nurse for wearing a cross necklace at work.
Although her case ended in victory, it never should have happened in the first place; nor should she have been forced to endure such torment for two years. Her case represents a desperate call for Britain to wake up to the Christian persecution within.
Imagine the outcry from Islamic groups (many who claim to fight for “human rights”) if Muslim nurses were asked to remove their hijabs for “harboring bacteria.” Muslims in the UK now top three million, with some parts of London almost 50% Muslim. Those who bullied Onuoha saw her as an easy Christian target. It is reassuring to know that a group such as Christian Concern exists.
Whoever was that was ultimately responsible for driving this outrageous, discriminatory vendetta against Mary Onuoha needs to be exposed, disciplined and stopped. Onouha should now launch a lawsuit for personal damages against those responsible.
“‘Hospital staff wore hijabs and went to mosque 4 times a day… yet my little cross was deemed so dangerous I lost the job that I loved,’” by Isobel James, Mail Plus, January 9, 2022:
AMONG Mary Onuoha’s most prized possessions is the small gold cross she has worn around her neck every day of her life since childhood, a symbol of this 61-year-old nurse’s devout faith.
‘Every time I look at it, I think of Jesus, His love, how much He loved me, and the need for me to love Him back,’ she says. Few could fail to be moved by the sincerity of those sentiments, even if they do not share them. Nor, you may think, could this small and discreet symbol of her belief possibly offend.
Alas, Mary’s employers at the South London hospital where she worked as a theatre practitioner for 19 years took a different view, and in recent years she was repeatedly asked to remove the cross, a present at her baptism. Mary was told that the necklace ‘harboured bacteria’, but she believes she was targeted for displaying a symbol of her Christian faith – even though many colleagues were allowed to sport other items expressing their religious beliefs, be they turbans, hijabs or bracelets.
On one occasion a manager even called her away from her nursing duties in an operating theatre in the middle of surgery to discipline her for wearing it – potentially risking patients’ safety, she claims.
When she refused to take it off, Mary was moved to clerical duties and became subject to what she describes as a sustained campaign of bullying that left her unable to work.
Having been signed off with stress, last October she brought a legal case against Croydon Health Services NHS Trust on the grounds of harassment, victimisation, direct and indirect discrimination, and constructive and unfair dismissal.
Last week her case ended in victory when employment judge Daniel Dyal found that Mary had been constructively dismissed in a way that was both unfair and discriminatory.
He said the trust had created a ‘humiliating, hostile and threatening environment’ and that when Mary complained, the response had been ‘offensive and intimidating’.
IT IS a vindication, albeit a bittersweet one, for Mary as she believes the case exposes the hostility and discrimination experienced by many Christians in the workplace, a view shared by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey.
Here, in her only newspaper interview, she tells The Mail on Sunday: ‘This has always been an attack on my faith. My cross has been with me for more than 40 years.
It is part of me, and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm.
‘At this hospital there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job.’
It is a turn of events that has astonished a woman who believed she was coming to a free country when she arrived in Britain from Nigeria in 1988 to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.
‘I am a strong woman, but I have been treated like a criminal,’ she says. ‘I love my job, but I am not prepared to compromise my faith for it, and neither should other Christian NHS staff in this country.’
It is clear that what Mary has endured runs deep. A proud, softly-spoken woman, she finds it hard to relate the events of recent years, and her voice falters frequently as she tells of her experience.
The Christian faith was at the heart of the Nigerian village where Mary was raised, the eldest of ten siblings in a loving family. And it was there that a family tragedy set her on the path to becoming a nurse….
“Christian nurse sacked for wearing cross necklace wins legal case”, Christian Concern–Issued by “Christian Legal Center”, January 5, 2022:
In a landmark ruling, today an Employment Tribunal has ruled that an NHS Trust harassed and directly discriminated against a Christian nurse for wearing a cross necklace at work.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Mary Onuoha, was told by the tribunal that she had been victimised by Croydon Health Services NHS Trust following the grievance she raised about the discrimination she experienced. They ruled that this had breached her human rights and created a ‘humiliating, hostile and threatening environment’ for her.
The outcome of the case develops a wider legal principle that employers cannot discriminate against employees for reasonable manifestations of faith in the workplace.
In June 2020, Mrs Onuoha had been forced out of her job as an NHS theatre practitioner at Croydon University Hospital in South London following what she described as a two-year campaign waged against her by superiors and NHS bosses.
After taking legal action, during the full hearing in October, the Trust had argued that wearing the cross necklace was an infection risk, however, Employment Judge Dyal and two lay members, Mrs Foster-Norman and Ms Forecast, have now ruled that: “Applying common sense, it is clear to us that the infection risk posed by a necklace of the sorts the Claimant used to wear, when worn by a responsible clinician such as the Claimant, who complied with handwashing protocol, was very low.”
The Tribunal also stated that the rejection of Mary’s grievance was: “offensive and intimidating. It failed to properly grapple with the complexity of the issues. No real thought seems to have been given to whether it was really appropriate to discipline the Claimant for doing something that in fact many others in the workforce (including more senior colleagues who worked just as closely with patients) were doing unchallenged. Equally, no real thought was given to the Claimant’s point that others were wearing religious apparel in clinical areas and that she should be treated equally to them.”
The Tribunal have also found that Croydon Health Services NHS Trust constructively dismissed Mrs Onuoha “without reasonable and proper cause” and that the dismissal was unfair and discriminatory.
Furthermore, it has ruled that the dress code policy was “applied in an arbitrary way and in a way that was not proportionate” and that there was “no cogent explanation” why plain rings, neckties, kalava bracelets, hijabs and turbans were permitted but a cross necklace was not (paras 270-271 of judgment.)
One of the most concerning parts of Mrs Onuoha’s case was how she reported being harassed for wearing the cross necklace by a senior manager while caring for a patient under general anaesthetic in the operating theatre.
On this point the Tribunal concluded that interrupting the surgery while a patient was on the table was “high-handed. She literally interrupted surgery in order to address the issue. This was to treat the matter as if it was an emergency, but on any view it was not,” and that that conduct created “an offensive, hostile and intimidating environment.”
The Tribunal rejected the Trust’s argument that its objection to the “necklace” had nothing to do with Mrs Onuoha’s Christian beliefs. It accepted the expert evidence of theologian Dr Martin Parsons, and on that basis, specifically found that “the Cross is a symbol of Christianity” and wearing a cross has many centuries of tradition behind it.
The judgment notes that “wearing of the cross is not and should not be simply as a fashion accessory” and “stopping Christians from displaying the cross has been a feature of wider persecution campaigns” in some parts of the world.
Roland says
Sickening. May God keep her and protect her.
mortimer says
Yes, ‘sickening’ indeed. Mary Onuoha escaped from the religious persecution and genocide against Christians in Nigeria and now suffers it in Britanistan!
Dhimmitude is being enforced by Britains hard-left fanatics to shore up their voting block of the RED-GREEN AXIS of EVIL.
News for the British hard-left: ENGLAND IS OFFICIALLY A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY WITH A CHRISTIAN OFFICIAL, ESTABLISHED CHURCH.
Of course, wearing Christian symbols is legal in England.
Michael Copeland says
“Under no circumstances is a human permitted to wear the cross.” Why? “Because the prophet — peace and blessings on him — commanded the breaking of it [the cross].”
— Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi,
Saudi expert on Islamic law, YouTube, May 8, 2013.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18071/hatred-for-christian-cross
somehistory says
OT:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/supreme-court-denies-appeal-of-regretful-islamic-state-bride/ar-
“The justices declined without comment on Monday to consider the appeal of Hoda Muthana, who was born in New Jersey in October 1994 to a diplomat from Yemen and grew up in Alabama near Birmingham.
Muthana left the U.S. to join the Islamic State in 2014, apparently after becoming radicalized online.
While she was overseas the government determined she was not a U.S. citizen and revoked her passport, citing her father’s status as a diplomat at the time of her birth. Her family sued to enable her return to the United States.”
Infidel says
This is good news indeed. SCOTUS has enough on its plate to consider this, especially given that this government would probably love to let Hoda Muthana back
gravenimage says
Good to hear, Somehistory.
somehistory says
Good to read that she gained a victory over those who were persecuting her. May she continue to succeed and may she continue to be blessed for her strong faith.
tim gallagher says
Listening to what happened to this Christian woman over her tiny cross, you would almost think you were reading about a Muslim country where the Muslim scum always persecute non-Muslims and treat them as second rate people. The UK is in big trouble with the way it caves in to the Muslim bludgers if they are, in fact, allowed to go off to the mosque 4 times a day. It is pathetic this caving in to Muslims and what happened to this Christian woman is appalling.
Infidel says
Tim
That’s the reason I contemptuously refer to the UK as Ummah Kaliphate
tim gallagher says
Yes, Infidel, the UK does seem far gone down the road to complete dhimmitude. It’s a damned shame.
Keith O says
I agree on every count Tim, We can only hope that the word of her victory spreads to other hospitals and work places around the UK.
It might help to slow down fall of the country into a full sharia hell hole.
tim gallagher says
Yes, Keith O, I hope that this minor victory does set some kind of precedent in the UK and elsewhere.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Tim. And note that “political correctness” only works one way–that fact that the victim here is Black and an immigrant is invalidated by her being Christian.
tim gallagher says
That seems to be the way it works, gravenimage. There is the politically correct pecking order and Christians do seem cop a hammering. The constant caving in to Muslims and their wishes and demands is very annoying and seems to happen continually. I suppose that the scam they run about being victims all the time appears to work.
gravenimage says
Yes–disgusting.
Kenneth J Johnson says
Going to Mosque four times a day. Wearing a Hijab in a operating theater of a hiospital. In what country is this?? Surely not that bastioin of freedom, the UK.
KEN
gravenimage says
UK: Christian nurse bullied by hospital staff over small cross while Muslims wore hijab, went to mosque 4Xs daily
……………….
Glad that Mary Onuoha fought! That she had to is of course appalling. That this was done in the middle of a pandemic, where hospitals need every experienced nurse they can find, is especially insane.
And Ms. Onuoha comes from a place that is no stranger to the worse persecutions of Christians, including their frequent mass murder. Britain *should* have been a haven from that persecution–that it has not been is sickening.
And claiming that a small cross “harbors bacteria”–but that an unhygenic Hijab does not–is obvious claptrap, and the worst kind of unequal treatment, Apparently the hospital is also fine with Muslim personnel leaving their patients to attend the Mosque. *Good grief*.
abu taleb says
Evil people (liberals) are fighting the good people,and they are befriend with the muslims because they have the same evil principles.
Rob R (Brit stuck in Britainistan) says
This is pathetic. The NHS has some unbelievably disturbing stories.
Rita says
Some people are clearly more equal than others.
Bikinis not Burkas says
She should have learned about Islam so she could tell the Hijibis that in Quran 2:282 Allah calls women half wits, and in Bukhari Volume 1 Book 6 Hadith 301 Muhammad said women are deficient of intelligence!
Rip your Hijab off fools!
Your fake god hates you and your false prophet the fat white dwarf Muhammad hates you!
John Allan says
I think that Boris needs to REMIND NHS management of two pertinent facts:
1) The NHS is BRITISH TAXPAYER-FUNDED! At least it was, when I last checked!
2) The UK emphatically ISN’T Muslim!
John Allan says
I’d like to know who’s taking responsibility for patients, whilst the Mussies are faffing about, attending their ruddy mosque!
Though the patients are probably safer with them gone, than in situ!