Colin Atkinson Banished for his Christian beliefs: Now electrician who had a cross in his van is thrown out of depot - 19th Apr 2011

The electrician making a stand over his Christian beliefs was yesterday thrown out of his workplace of 15 years for displaying a cross to mark Easter.

Colin Atkinson was told he had ‘violated’ his contract by revealing he had been disciplined for having the symbol on the dashboard of his company van.

Senior managers told the 64-year-old grandfather he could no longer work at the depot because he had ‘upset his workmates’. He has been moved to another depot but fears he will be sacked in days.

Despite Wakefield District Housing’s ‘anti-Christian’ rules, Mr Atkinson’s boss, Denis Doody, is allowed to display a poster of communist revolutionary Che Guevara in his office.

It is believed Mr Doody is one of the ‘upset’ colleagues.

Yesterday morning senior WDH managers were waiting for Mr Atkinson – who retires in ten months – at the company’s depot in Castleford, West Yorkshire, to deliver the news.

Mr Atkinson told the Daily Mail: ‘I expect to be sacked within days. They have already found against me for failing to carry out a “reasonable management request” by refusing to get rid of the cross.

‘And now they say they will give me three days notice of their final decision.

‘But if I lose my job as a consequence of all this then so be it. I don’t have any bitterness. I am standing by what I believe to be right in the eyes of the Lord.’

Mr Doody, the company’s environmental manager, has complained about being drawn into Mr Atkinson’s disciplinary case. But the electrician, who has been moved to a depot in Wakefield, claims that his boss’s Left-wing posters are relevant. Read More