The chief executive of the organization overseeing the Eiffel Tower will resign by the year’s end following an incident where female staff members were excluded during a visit by a Hindu group at the iconic Parisian landmark. Patrick Branco Ruivo, the director general of Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel, will step down after an independent investigation revealed operational shortcomings during the September 5 visit. These failures led to the exclusion of female employees, deemed unacceptable by the company.
The Eiffel Tower, a popular attraction with seven million annual visitors, faced closure on September 7 due to a staff strike protesting what union representatives termed as unacceptable management directives. Tensions escalated among the 330-meter tower’s employees when management instructed that female workers should not interact with the delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a global religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect of Hinduism. BAPS was celebrating the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple in the Paris region.
In response to the incident, BAPS clarified that they did not request the exclusion or removal of female employees during the visit. The group emphasized that their monks’ religious practices were communicated to the Eiffel Tower’s management beforehand, clarifying that these practices are personal and do not mandate the exclusion of women from visited places.
Ariel Weil, the chairman of the operating company, announced plans on Tuesday to introduce measures and training initiatives promoting gender equality. This episode is not the first time the 137-year-old Eiffel Tower has faced closure due to labor disputes, as it was previously shut down for six days in February 2024 over employee demands for improved maintenance and higher wages.