PARIS — The Eiffel Tower was set to reopen Tuesday after employees walked out to protest the removal of female staff from their posts during a visit from a Hindu religious group.
The tower’s operating company, SETE, said management and staff reached an agreement Monday that would allow the landmark to reopen.
SETE also acknowledged that the visiting delegation had requested arrangements that limited “interactions with women” and said management should not have accepted those conditions.
The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), the spiritual movement that organized the visit, apologized for “any pain or inconvenience caused” by the incident.
“To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower,” BAPS said on X.
The organization said officials arranged the visit with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours because of the delegation’s size and to avoid disrupting other visitors.
Eiffel Tower employees, however, said managers instructed female workers to leave their posts or avoid certain areas during the delegation’s visit.
The staff condemned what they described as “professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex.”
“Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation,” the workers said.
Some female employees had to leave their posts and move to other areas, while men replaced some of them, according to the staff. They also said managers instructed all female employees not to pass through certain areas while the delegation remained at the landmark.
The dispute prompted employees to walk out and temporarily close the Eiffel Tower.
SETE said the conditions surrounding the visit should not have been accepted and confirmed that the landmark would resume operations Tuesday.
