Wed, 3 Sep 2008 9:56

High street pharmacy Boots has asked staff in one branch to stop wearing promotional t-shirts.

Staff at the company's flagship Irish store in Belfast city centre's Donegall Place can no longer wear the union jack style promotional t-shirts designed as part of an advertising campaign.

The decision to abandon the t-shirts follows a complaint from one shopper.

Sean Reynolds told the Andersontown News that he complained to the manager after visiting the store in his lunch break.

"To be fair, it was blue and grey, there was no red on it, but it was still basically a union jack," he explained.

"I decided to make a complaint because in this day and age people are entitled to work in a neutral environment and this is just a blatantly sectarian symbol."

A representative from Boots added: "We value comments from all of our customers, but we are not in the business of causing offence, and as such we have asked the girls to change the t-shirts."