Overview
- Union representatives say that during a private visit by about 100 people linked to BAPS on Saturday female Eiffel Tower employees were asked to leave posts or avoid certain areas so male staff could take their places.
- Staff held a meeting and staged a walkout on Monday that closed the monument while employees demanded guarantees that women would not be sidelined again.
- SETE, the operator of the tower, apologised, acknowledged the delegation asked to limit “interactions with women,” and launched an internal review that its president said must draw necessary conclusions.
- BAPS issued an apology saying no one was denied access to its knowledge, Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire ordered a formal investigation, and politicians across the spectrum condemned the reported treatment of female staff.
- The episode follows BAPS’s consecration of a major temple in France and is likely to trigger new rules for VIP and delegation visits to public sites so religious practices are accommodated without changing employees’ duties or rights.