Primark staff criticise 'pikey' customers on Facebook

One employee wrote on the Facebook page about "twat customers" leaving folded clothes in a mess, saying that she wanted to "dropkick them to the homeware department".

Another staff member wrote: "The money is shit and the place is a market for pikeys."

A women's department assistant, also posting on the Facebook page, complained about "hefty" shoppers who needed to "lose some f****** weight".

Primark said it has launched an investigation into the Facebook comments.

In January, Waitrose and Tesco also launched investigations following the revelation that some employees had posted abusive comments about customers on various Facebook groups.

During the same month, a London girls' school suspended 29 of its pupils after they posted insulting comments about a teacher on Facebook.

In previous instances staff at other companies including Virgin Atlantic and 118 118 have also criticised customers on the social networking sites.