Row breaks out after female Pret worker pictured wearing 'I am new, kiss me' badge at London branch

A row has broken out after a picture emerged of a female Pret worker wearing a badge saying, “I am new, kiss me” at a branch in London.

The badge was spotted by journalist Bella Mackie at the sandwich chain’s Bishopsgate store and was emblazoned with Pret’s signature star.

Ms Mackie posted a picture of it on Twitter, saying: "Come on Pret, it’s kind of gross to make new female employees wear this badge."

She later added: "So bleak. Imagine the comments."

Pret replied to the tweet, saying “we definitely don't ask our employees to wear badges with this message” and adding that the matter would be looked into “as a matter of urgency”.

The company added: "Our teams can order badges with names on and can personalise them."

Many people replied to the tweet in disgust, including former deputy Labour leader Harrier Harman.

She wrote: "Oh no! This cannot be for real! If it is, @Pret, stop it immediately!

"I love Pret but hate this!"

Meanwhile Green Party peer Jenny Jones wrote: “Oh yuck @Pret that's terrible. It's an invite to gropers.”

Another customer said he had seen other members of staff wearing inappropriate messages.

He said: "Interestingly, I saw today both that one alongside a black employee wearing one with 'hot chocolate' and thought 'am I being bad, or are they really doing this?'.

"If this is company policy, or even just encouraged, it's quite appalling."

One person tweeted: "The badge has a company logo on it, worn at work, so is representing the business.

"What if the employee had racist or homophobic beliefs or printed a political slogan would that too be OK on a corporate badge?"

Another added: "I'm hoping you'll be stopping this Pret, sends an awful message and encourages totally inappropriate behaviour. You have a duty of care to your employees. This does nothing to protect them."

And another said: “Promoting harassment. Such a shame. A good company's standards plummet.”

A Pret spokeswoman told the Standard: "We do not ask our employees to wear badges with this message.

"Our teams can personalise their own name badges; on this occasion, the badge has been used inappropriately.

"We have already taken action and will be ensuring that only names are used on badges going forward.”