Christian Children’s Worker Who Was Forced to Resign Loses Case

The London-based Christian Legal Centre expressed disappointment when an employment tribunal ruled that 57 year-old children’s worker Celestina Mba was not constructively dismissed from her job after she was forced to resign in 2010.

Ms. Mba worked for almost three years at the Brightwell Children’s Home in Morden, in London, a respite home for children with disabilities including autism.

She has been a Christian since she was a young girl and has never worked on a Sunday.

According to the Christian Legal Centre Ms. Mba gave evidence that her beliefs were initially respected by her employer, the London Borough of Merton, which was informed before she started the job that she would have difficulties working on a Sunday, but that the Council later changed its mind and she was forced to choose between her job and her faith.

Ms Mba said that she would have worked nights and Saturdays, both unpopular shifts as people want to be with their families or go out, or she would have accepted less pay. Yet despite her offers, no compromise was accepted, and she was forced to resign.

The Judge found that there were no viable alternatives to requiring Ms. Mba to work on Sundays.

However, in stark contrast, another case heard just last year, Cherfi v G4S Security Services Ltd, revealed a situation whereby an employer accommodated a Muslim employee so that he could attend the Finsbury Park Mosque, the epicentre of Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom.

Ms. Mba said: “It is impossible to speak with me and not know of my commitment to Jesus and that I will not work on the Sabbath day, yet the Tribunal found that my employers were not aware of this fact. They also held that repeated instructions by Merton Council to work on Sundays in violation of my faith was not a violation of my rights.

“I am amazed by this decision. I thought that this was a Christian country and was known for its welcome and hospitality to all people. I worked hard for years at my job, and to lose it because of intolerance towards my faith is shocking to me.”

Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “We are extremely disappointed by this decision and we will consider appealing. Celestina was let down by her employers, who failed to continue to accommodate her beliefs.

“She was an employee who wished to not work on a Sunday. Her employers forced her to choose between her job and her faith. This was unacceptable, and we are disappointed that the Judge did not agree.

“There needs to be a reasonable accommodation of the Christian faith across the public sphere, for the good of all; pressure from employers against Christians expressing their faith is an increasingly regular hallmark of what Baroness Warsi has described as our 'deeply intolerant culture.'”

Sorry. If you have a job that needs to be covered 24-7 - hospital, nursing home, police, fire -you do your shift. You keep the Sabbath holy by protecting human lives. Now if you can work something out with a co-worker - she covers Sundays and you go to church, you do Friday nights so she can light the Sabbath candles or hit the clubs as it suits her - that’s great and management shouldn’t be bloody-minded about it.

Given accomodations were made for a Muslim employee so he could attend Mosque; and given this Christian woman told them she would work unpopular hours on Saturday or week nights to be off on Sunday, it looks to me like the “council” discriminates against Christians.

I wonder if there were Muslims involved in the decision to force her to work Sundays while accomodating the Muslim or was it Brit Marxist pigs? I would not want my Christian children in that hospital. They probably murder them.

Matthew 12:9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.

Cherfi v G4S Security Services Ltd, revealed a situation whereby an employer accommodated a Muslim employee so that he could attend the Finsbury Park Mosque, the epicentre of Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom.

Not the same employer - Ms. Mba is employed by Merton Council, local government, and Mr. Cherfi seems to have been employed by a private security company.

All the Christian police officers and nurses who have ever had to work on Christmas let alone Sundays can tell her it's just part of the job.

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