(CP) – A devout Christian dishwasher and mother of six who was fired by the Conrad Hotel in Miami, Florida, for refusing to work on Sundays was awarded $21 million in punitive damages by a federal jury Monday after she sued for the violation of her religious rights. “I love God. No, I can’t [work on] Sunday because Sunday, I honor God,” Haitian immigrant Marie Jean Pierre, 60, said in an interview with NBC 6 South Florida on Wednesday.
The jury found that the Conrad Hotel retaliated against Pierre when they fired her for being unable to work on Sundays even though they were aware of her involvement with the Soldiers of Christ Church that prevented her from working on Sundays, the Miami Herald reported. Pierre worked at the hotel from 2006 to 2016 but it wasn’t until 2015 that her boss, kitchen manager George Colon, decided she would have to work on Sundays anyway. READ MORE