Eiffel chief quits over female exclusion

PARIS (AP) :

The head of the company that runs the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year after female staff at the landmark building in Paris were excluded during a visit by a Hindu religious group.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, director general of the Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), will leave his post after an investigation conducted by an independent firm uncovered a series of operational failures in relation to the visit on September 5.

The failures resulted “in female staff being excluded from the visit that day, an unacceptable situation”, a SETE statement on Tuesday said. Ruivo was appointed at the end of 2018.

The Eiffel Tower, which attracts seven million visitors a year, was closed on September 7 due to a staff strike in protest over what a union official described as “unacceptable” management instructions.

Anger grew among staff of the 330-metre (1,083-foot) iconic landmark after management told employees that female workers should not be in contact with the delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha.

The group, known as BAPS, is a worldwide religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism. It had been holding celebrations to mark the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple in Paris.

The group did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday’s announcement.

At the time of the incident, BAPS said in a statement: ”This coordination was undertaken purely as a matter of operational courtesy and logistics to ensure a smooth visit for a large group without inconveniencing the Tower’s employees or the public. It was never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender.’’

Ariel Weil, chair of SETE, said he has requested measures and training programmes promoting gender equality to be implemented.

It was not the first time the 137-year-old tower has been closed by industrial action. It was shut for six days in February 2024 because of striking employees demanding better maintenance of the historic landmark and higher wages.