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 famous Parisian landmark. Patrick Branco Ruivo, the general director of the Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel, will step down after an independent investigation revealed operational shortcomings during the visit on September 5. These failures led to the exclusion of female staff members from the visit, a situation deemed unacceptable by the company in a statement released on Tuesday. Ruivo assumed his position at the end of 2018.
The Eiffel Tower, a site that attracts seven million visitors annually, was temporarily closed on September 7 due to a strike by staff protesting what a union representative labeled as inappropriate managerial directives. Tensions rose among the 330-meter tower’s employees after management instructed that female workers should avoid contact with a delegation from the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a global religious and civic group within the Swaminarayan sect of Hinduism. The BAPS was celebrating the opening of a traditional Hindu stone temple in the Paris area.
In response to the incident, the BAPS clarified in a statement to The Associated Press that they did not request the exclusion or removal of female employees during the visit. They explained that their religious practices were communicated to the Eiffel Tower management beforehand, emphasizing that these practices did not mandate the exclusion of women from visited places.
Ariel Weil, the chairman of the operating company, announced on Tuesday that he has called for the implementation of measures and training initiatives promoting gender equality. This closure of the Eiffel Tower due to labor disputes is not unprecedented, as the historic landmark was previously shut down for six days in February 2024 due to employee strikes demanding better maintenance and higher wages.