Europe · updated 2h ago · 2 min read
Eiffel Tower Director Patrick Branco Ruivo Quits After Excluding Women Staff During BAPS Visit
Ruivo to step down as Eiffel Tower director by year-end after female staff exclusion Internal investigation found a series of malfunctions and protocol failures during the Hindu group visit
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Eiffel Tower leadership change
Patrick Branco Ruivo, director general of the Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), announced on Tuesday, September 29 that he would depart at the end of the year after female staff at the Eiffel Tower were excluded during a visit by a Hindu religious group.
SETE said an investigation by an independent firm uncovered operational failures tied to the Sept. 5 visit, and the failures resulted “in female staff being excluded from the visit that day, an unacceptable situation,” according to a SETE statement.
A staff strike closed the Eiffel Tower on Sept. 7, and the operating company said the landmark reopened after the one-day strike over restrictions on women during the visit in Paris.
SETE said the visit involved a delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, known as BAPS, which had been holding celebrations to mark the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple in Paris.
Strike, investigations, and dispute
A staff walkout followed management instructions that female workers should not be in contact with the delegation from BAPS, and Ariel Weil said on Tuesday he requested measures and training programs promoting gender equality to be implemented. SETE said the internal probe revealed “operational flaws and shortcomings” in organising the visit that led to the “unacceptable” removal of women staff, and the mayor of Paris also ordered separate investigations over the removal.
BAPS said in a statement to The Associated Press that the coordination was “purely as a matter of operational courtesy and logistics” and “It was never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender.” A union representative, Diane Davoine, told Reuters that “As the delegation passed through, women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take their places,” and workers described the arrangements as “female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex.”
What changes next
SETE said it would prepare the leadership transition under “the best possible conditions,” and Ariel Weil said the company would introduce new measures including the creation of a “dedicated protocol department.” SETE chair Ariel Weil said the company would implement “a new set of measures and training programmes to promote gender equality,” and the operating company also said the coming months would allow it to prepare for the leadership transition.
The Eiffel Tower operating company said it had launched an internal investigation with an external firm and the City of Paris opened its own investigation as owner of the monument, which is described as 99% owned by the city. The controversy also prompted discussion of the tower’s past industrial action, with the AP reporting that the Eiffel Tower was shut for six days in February 2024 because of striking employees demanding better maintenance and higher wages.