Marie Jean Pierre, a devout Christian woman, is celebrating after winning a $21.5 million verdict, ending a complaint she and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed against her employer, Conrad Miami Hotel. The complaint was originally filed when she was “fired for not showing up for her six Sunday shifts.”

Marie Jean Pierre worked as a dishwasher at the Hilton-owned hotel from 2006 until 2016. For years, the hotel’s managers made accommodations for Pierre, who is very involved in the Soldiers of Christ Church.

Pierre stated in an early interview, “I love God, no work on Sunday, because Sunday I honor God.”

But in 2015, her boss, kitchen manager George Colon, assigned her to work Sundays anyway. Pierre was able to trade shifts with her coworkers for several weeks, but Colon ultimately demanded she show up to do the work. She eventually was fired for missing work.

In response to being fired, Pierre filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that her termination was a “violation of her civil rights and religious beliefs.” She also charged her employer with “creating a hostile work environment,” and filed a lawsuit in May 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Her attorney, Marc Brumer said in a statement: “They accommodated her for seven years, and they easily could have accommodated her, but instead of doing that, they set her up for absenteeism and threw her out. She’s a soldier of Christ. She was doing this for all the other workers who are being discriminated against.”

Both Pierre and her attorney insist the case was more about standing up for religious freedom than money.

When commenting on the verdict, Bruner said: “This was not about money. This was about sending a message to other corporations whether big or small. Whatever size you are, if you’re going to take the blood and sweat of your workers, you better accommodate them or let them at least believe in their religious beliefs. Not a preference but a belief.”

The federal jury in Miami ordered Park Hotels & Resorts, Inc., to pay Pierre $36,000 in lost wages, $500,000 for emotional anguish and $21 million in punitive damages.