Nurse sues over ban on cross necklace

A nurse is suing a hospital for discrimination after administrators ‘bullied’ her to remove or cover up a Christian cross necklace.

A nurse in London is suing her employer over a ‘ban’ on wearing a cross. Picture: AP

A nurse is suing a London hospital for discrimination because she claims that administrators bullied her to remove or cover up a Christian cross necklace.

Mary Onuoha, 61, an operating theatre specialist at Croydon University Hospital, will tell an employment tribunal today that she was “treated like a criminal” for wearing a small gold cross.

The tribunal in south London will hear from the nurse’s lawyers that Croydon Health Services NHS Trust breached Onuoha’s right to “manifest her faith” as protected under human rights and equality legislation.

Campaigners backing the nurse said the case “will bring into question the freedom of Christians to manifest their faith in the workplace, especially in comparison to members of other faiths”.

Her legal team will argue that other clinical staff at the south London hospital were permitted to wear jewellery, saris, turbans and hijabs and that only the cross was specifically banned.

Onuoha worked at the hospital for 19 years.

She will allege that from 2015 managers asked her either to remove her cross, conceal it, or face “escalation”.

The tribunal will hear that in 2019 Onuoha was given a final written warning and was told that if she returned to clinical areas with the cross on “security would become involved”.

The trust said it would not comment on active legal proceedings.

The Times