NIGERIAN NURSE WINS LAWSUIT IN UK AFTER BEING HARASSED AND SACKED FOR EXPRESSING HER FAITH.

NIGERIAN NURSE WINS LAWSUIT IN UK AFTER BEING HARASSED AND SACKED FOR EXPRESSING HER FAITH.

Mary Onuoha, a Nigerian nurse living in the UK, who was allegedly harassed for wearing cross necklace at work, has won a lawsuit filed in the Employment Tribunal.

The Catholic nurse employed by Croydon University Hospital had been asked to remove her necklace in 2014, request based on the National Health Service's policy that the wearing of necklaces represent a health and safety risk. 

However, the act of wearing the necklace is a symbol of her faith and after several attempts to stop wearing the necklace, the hospital demoted her and reassigned her to work as a receptionist. She resigned in 2020, after working as a nurse there for 18 years - Evening Standards reports. 

Onuoha then filed charges saying she had been unfairly dismissed and the hospital had violated her free expression of her religion and in turn, The Employment Tribunal in its ruling said she's been harassed and victimized by the hospital asking her to stop wearing her cross die to infection risk.

Narrating her ordeal, the 61-year-old nurse said: "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. 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 their red bracelets on their wrists and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet small necklace around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job. I am a strong woman but I have been treated like a criminal"