The director of the company running the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year, the company said, after an episode this month in which men replaced female employees while members of a prominent Hindu group visited.
The director, Patrick Branco Ruivo, has run the Eiffel Tower Operating Company since 2018. He is resigning after an internal inquiry “uncovered a series of problems and shortcomings” that “led to the exclusion of female staff” during the tour by members of the Hindu group, the company said in an emailed statement.
Mr. Branco Ruivo had been under fire since Sept. 5, when union leaders said that female employees had been told to wait out of sight during the tour. Monks of the group, Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, take vows of celibacy that prohibit them from speaking to or touching women, according to its website.
The decision to sideline the female workers prompted a staff strike that closed the Eiffel Tower to tourists for a day. It also led to apologies from both the tower’s management and the Hindu group.
Mr. Branco Ruivo could not be reached for comment. In an internal resignation letter, shared by a press representative of the company, Mr. Branco Ruivo said that he did not personally authorize the decision to sideline the female workers.
The French minister for gender equality, Aurore Bergé, called what had happened “unacceptable,” and said that it went against French values, including the French Republic’s founding principle of secularism.
The mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, also criticized the sidelining of the female workers, saying in a statement that “gender equality is not a negotiable or adjustable principle.” The city of Paris — which is the majority owner of the operating company — subsequently launched two investigations to “understand the chain of decisions that led to this situation.”
Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.
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