Eiffel Tower chief to exit after female staff excluded during Hindu group visit
The head of the Eiffel Tower's operating company will step down after an inquiry found female staff were excluded during a Hindu delegation's visit.
The director general of the company that operates the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year, following an independent investigation into the exclusion of female staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group, the company said on Tuesday.
Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has led the Société d'Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE) since the end of 2018, will leave his post after the inquiry identified a series of operational failures linked to the visit on September 5.
In a statement, SETE said the failures resulted in female employees being kept away from the visit that day, describing the situation as unacceptable.
The controversy centred on instructions given to staff that female workers should not come into contact with the delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a worldwide religious and civic organisation within the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism. The group had been holding celebrations to mark the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple in Paris.
Anger among employees at the 330-metre landmark, which draws about seven million visitors a year, led to a staff strike that closed the tower on September 7. A union official had described the management instructions as unacceptable.
Ariel Weil, chair of SETE, said on Tuesday that she has requested measures and training programmes promoting gender equality to be implemented.
The closure was not the first caused by industrial action at the 137-year-old tower. It was shut for six days in February 2024, when striking employees demanded better maintenance of the historic structure and higher wages.