A devout Christian claimed she was forced to quit her job as a children’s care worker because she refused to work on Sundays for religious reasons.

Celestina Mba, of Bennetts Close, Mitcham, brought a claim against Merton Council for its actions claiming it unlawfully discriminated against her on the grounds of religion and faith.

The 57-year-old said she left her job as a residential care officer at Brightwell Children’s Home, Morden, a respite home for children with disabilities, in June 2010.

A practising Christian for 36 years, she said she has never worked on Sundays, London South Employment Tribunal heard.

After initially accommodating her wishes, the council informed Miss Mba in 2010 she would be required to work on Sundays or be dismissed, the court heard.

She said the alternatives she had previously suggested to Merton Council – including her working nights or Saturdays, or taking a pay cut – were ignored.

Miss Mba said: “I believe my employer did not want to compromise and saw the issue as a question of management power with disrespect to the Christian faith.

“I have been treated very badly."

Speaking to the Wimbledon Guardian, Miss Mba revealed she told Merton Council about her commitments to Oasis Church, Colliers Wood – where she is part of the ministry team – during her interview for the job in 2007.

She said: "There’s a lot of talk these days of decline in religion but I am someone who believes and has been maligned.

“I would like to ask Merton Council to remember the values which they hold so dear.

"They say they believe in diversity, but I don’t think they’ve been diverse enough.

“If they valued my faith or valued me as a person, they would have taken my faith into account and worked around it like they said from the beginning.”

She said she made clear that she would find it “difficult” to work on Sundays, and that Merton Council said it would “work around” this.

But the Council told the tribunal it did not take from this that Ms Mba would not work on Sundays at all and gave no assurance that she would never have to.

John Deegan, Miss Mba’s former manager at Brightwell, said he would have taken further advice if at the interview he had understood that her religious faith meant she could not work on Sundays.

He said: “I did not understand it as a faith issue from the start.

“Saying it would be “difficult” did not imply that Miss Mba could not do it.”

Miss Mba also said she had heard another colleague, of the Muslim faith, was allowed Fridays off in order to pray at the mosque – which Merton Council denied.

Andrea Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, which is representing Miss Mba, said they hoped a reasonable outcome could be achieved.

She said: “Celestina is a woman of strong faith and continues to have strong faith despite what’s happened.

“It’s a shame that a lady who loves her work and partly does it because she’s inspired by her beliefs should be pushed out of her job in this way.”

The tribunal continues.

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