Eiffel Tower chief to step down after row over removal of women staff for Hindu group’s visit
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The company that manages the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday said that its chief would step down in the wake of a row that broke out after the women staff were removed from the Paris landmark during a visit by a Hindu religious group in September, AFP reported.
Patrick Branco Ruivo would leave his role at the end of the year after an internal probe found “operational flaws and shortcomings” in organising the visit had led to the “unacceptable” removal of the women staff, the news agency quoted the firm, Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, as saying.
On September 7, the staff at the monument went on a brief strike to protest the removal of women colleagues during a visit by a delegation of the Hindu denomination Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha two days earlier.
The removal of the women staff had sparked criticism from French politicians across the spectrum, who said that the country’s values about gender equality were not negotiable.
The firm had at the time stated that such conditions by the religious group “should not have been accepted”, as they were inconsistent with its values and the principle of gender equality. It said that it would “accept the consequences” of the incident.
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