The chief executive of the organization overseeing the Eiffel Tower will resign by the year’s end following an incident where female employees were excluded during a visit by a Hindu group at the Paris landmark. Patrick Branco Ruivo, the general director of the Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel, will step down after an outside investigation revealed operational shortcomings during the Sept. 5 visit. The lapses led to the exclusion of female staff on that day, which the company deemed unacceptable in a statement released on Tuesday. Ruivo took up his position at the close of 2018.
The Eiffel Tower, a site that draws in seven million tourists annually, faced closure on Sept. 7 due to a strike by employees protesting against what a union representative labeled as inappropriate management directives. Tensions rose among the 330-meter tall landmark’s staff when management instructed that female workers should not interact with the delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, also known as BAPS. The organization, a global religious and social group within the Swaminarayan Hindu sect, was celebrating the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple in the Paris area.
BAPS clarified in a statement to The Associated Press that they did not make any requests for female employees to be concealed, removed, or excluded during the visit. The organization explained that the religious practices of its monks were communicated to the Eiffel Tower’s management beforehand, noting that these practices are personal spiritual commitments observed by the monks without imposing them on others. The group did not specify the nature of these practices.
Ariel Weil, the chairman of the operating company, announced on Tuesday that he has called for initiatives and training programs to promote gender equality within the organization. This incident is not the first time the 137-year-old tower has faced closure due to labor actions. In February 2024, it was shut down for six days as employees went on strike demanding improved maintenance of the historic structure and higher wages.
