Eiffel Tower BAPS Visit Probe Finds No Explicit Request To Remove Female Staff

Days after allegations that female staff were removed from the Eiffel Tower during a private visit by a delegation of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), an official probe has found that the Hindu organisation made “no explicit request” for female employees to be removed.

The women staff had alleged last month that they were sidelined during the private visit by the BAPS delegation. The employees subsequently went on strike, resulting in the Eiffel Tower being closed for a day. BAPS had denied the allegations.

The findings emerged from an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the City of Paris (IGVP) and were reported by French newspaper Le Parisien.

‘Collective Dysfunction’, Message Distorted Through Word Of Mouth

According to the IGVP investigation, BAPS did not explicitly ask for female employees to be removed. Instead, the sidelining of women resulted from an internal communication failure in which an initial request was progressively distorted through word-of-mouth communication.

“The initial request brought to the attention of SETE concerned the lack of physical contact between religious figures and women,” the investigation report said.

However, on the day of the visit, security positions were assigned “that very morning” to male employees, including posts held by agents responsible for security and those stationed at elevator exits.

The report said employees working at reception and in customer relations were also asked to temporarily leave while part of the delegation travelled to the North Pillar.

A female employee working for a cleaning service was subsequently asked to wait for her break, while another female employee was replaced in an elevator during the delegation’s descent, according to the report cited by Le Parisien.

The City of Paris Inspector General attributed the incident to “an internal process in which a requirement for no contact was progressively translated into the assignment of male staff to various positions, and then extended in its implementation to the point of dismissing or replacing female employees already in place.”

The probe concluded that “through word of mouth, the message was distorted.”

Eiffel Tower Chief To Step Down

The communication failure has also led to consequences for the company operating the Eiffel Tower.

The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) confirmed that its director general, Patrick Branco Ruivo, will leave his position by the end of the year.

SETE said an internal investigation had identified “operational flaws and shortcomings” in the organisation of the BAPS delegation’s visit, which ultimately resulted in female employees being removed from their positions.

The company described the exclusion of female staff as “an unacceptable situation.”

Ruivo has served as SETE’s director general since the end of 2018.