From The Guardian:
A nurse who claimed she was victimized for wearing a necklace with a Christian cross at work has won a case for unfair dismissal.
Mary Onuoha, a theatre practitioner at Croydon university hospital, Surrey, was discriminated against and harassed, an employment tribunal ruled on Wednesday.
Onuoha, a Catholic, wore a necklace with a small cross pendant both in and out of work as a symbol of her religious devotion.
However, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust’s uniform policy prohibited the wearing of necklaces in clinical areas on the basis that they could be a health and safety risk.
Onuoha was asked to remove her necklace in 2014, 13 years after she began working at the hospital. She refused for religious reasons, and refused again when the issue was raised again in 2015 and 2016.
Further efforts by the trust to get Onuoha to remove the necklace, or wear it inside her uniform, failed. She was suspended from clinical duties and demoted to working as a receptionist which she said left her feeling humiliated. She resigned in 2020 and claimed constructive and unfair dismissal.
She argued that the trust had breached her right to religion under article 9 of the European convention on human rights, and that her treatment was religious discrimination, harassment and victimization under the 2010 Equality Act.
According to the tribunal’s ruling, the wearing of jewelry, including necklaces, was “rife” among the trust’s workforce and was “widely tolerated” by management.
