The chief of an operating firm that runs Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower will step down by the end of the year, the company said, after female staff there were reportedly removed during the visit by a Hindu religious group Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) earlier this month.
The firm named Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE) said that its director general Patrick Branco Ruivo will leave his post after an internal probe conducted revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the removal of women staff, reported news agency AFP.
SETE said in a statement that the failures resulted “in female staff being excluded from the visit that day, an unacceptable situation".
Ruivo has served as the director general of SETE since the end of 2018.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has also ordered separate investigations into the circumstances surrounding the removal of the women employees.
What happened?
On September 7, the staff of Eiffel Tower staged a walkout and forced the closure of the iconic landmark for a day after female staff were removed from the premises during the visit of a BAPS delegation.
BAPS is a worldwide religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect. It was holding celebrations to mark the inauguration of a traditional stone temple in the French capital.
{{/usCountry}}BAPS is a worldwide religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect. It was holding celebrations to mark the inauguration of a traditional stone temple in the French capital.
{{/usCountry}}SETE at the time had said that the BAPS delegation had asked to “limit interactions with women”, while stating that this should not have been accepted in the first place.
“I restate the Eiffel Tower's commitment to republican values and to the equality of men and women,” SETE president Ariel Weil had told AFP.
Staff union representative Diane Davoine told Reuters during the strike that “during the visit of this delegation, women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there” that it made them feel “humiliated”.
“Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts, they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present,” Davoine said.
What did BAPS say?
After the incident, BAPS said it coordinated with the Eiffel Tower's management to minimize disruption to staff and visitors ahead of a visit by a delegation of some 100 people.
It said in a statement to Associated Press that coordination was “never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender, and any suggestion to the contrary does not reflect the spirit or values of our fellowship or the delegation."
BAPS added that it “remains firmly committed to the principles of equality, mutual respect, and service to all, regardless of gender, background, or belief — values that lie at the very heart of our tradition’s teachings and community work worldwide.”
How MEA responded?
The ministry of external affairs responded to the incident on September 8 and said that it was a matter “between the entities concerned.”
“We are aware of the opening of a temple by the BAPS Sanstha in the Paris area. As to the particular issue pertaining to the Tower, this is a matter purely between the entities concerned," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.