Eiffel Tower chief to step down after exclusion of female staff during Hindu delegation visit

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, 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 company statement on Tuesday said. Ruivo was appointed at the end of 2018.

The Eiffel Tower, which attracts 7 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-meter (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 the Paris region.

BAPS said in a statement to The Associated Press that the group “never requested that female employees be hidden, removed or excluded from the visit.”

Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

Eiffel Tower closed due to strike after female staff allegedly removed for religious group

“The religious practices of our monks were explained to the Eiffel Tower’s management in advance. These are personal spiritual commitments, which our monks observe without seeking to impose them on others. They do not require women to be excluded from the places they visit,” the statement said. The group did not elaborate on what the monks’ practices are.

Ariel Weil, the operating company’s chair, said on Tuesday he has requested measures and training programs 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.

运营埃菲尔铁塔的公司负责人将于年底辞职，此前，在巴黎这座地标性建筑中，一些女性员工在印度教宗教团体参观期间被拒之门外。

埃菲尔铁塔运营公司总经理帕特里克·布兰科·鲁伊沃在一家独立公司进行的调查发现与 9 月 5 日的参观活动相关的一系列运营失误后，将离职。

该公司周二发表声明称，这些失误导致“女性员工当天被排除在参观活动之外，这种情况令人无法接受”。鲁伊沃于2018年底被任命。

埃菲尔铁塔每年吸引 700 万游客，由于员工罢工抗议工会官员所说的“不可接受的”管理层指示，该铁塔于 9 月 7 日关闭。

在管理层告知员工女员工不应与来自博查桑瓦西·什里·阿克沙尔·普鲁肖塔姆·斯瓦米纳拉扬·桑斯塔的代表团接触后，这座 330 米（1083 英尺）高的标志性地标的员工们越来越愤怒。

该组织名为BAPS，是斯瓦米纳拉扬教派（印度教的一个分支）旗下的一个全球性宗教和公民组织。他们一直在举行庆祝活动，纪念巴黎地区一座传统印度教石庙的落成。

BAPS 在一份发给美联社的声明中表示，该组织“从未要求将女性员工隐藏、移除或排除在访问之外”。

萨拉·梅索尼尔/路透社

埃菲尔铁塔因罢工关闭，据称此前有女性员工因宗教团体活动而被解雇。

声明称：“我们已事先向埃菲尔铁塔管理方解释了僧侣们的宗教习俗。这些都是僧侣们个人的精神信仰，他们遵守这些习俗并不强加于人。这些习俗并不要求将女性排除在他们所到之处之外。” 该团体并未详细说明僧侣们的具体习俗。

运营公司董事长阿里尔·韦尔周二表示，他已要求实施促进性别平等的措施和培训计划。

这并非这座拥有137年历史的塔楼第一次因罢工而关闭。2024年2月，该塔楼曾因员工罢工而关闭六天，员工们要求改善这座历史地标的维护状况并提高工资。