Departure of the general director of SETE after a controversy over the Eiffel Tower

The general director of the Eiffel Tower operating company (SETE), Patrick Branco Ruivo, announced on Tuesday, September 29, his departure at the end of the year, after the ousting of employees during the visit to the Parisian monument by a group of Hindu clerics at the beginning of September.

The SETE's internal investigation "uncovered a series of dysfunctions and failures in the structuring of the protocol visits and the organization of that of September 5, which led to the exclusion of female staff on the day of the visit, an unacceptable situation", details the company operating the Eiffel Tower in a press release.

The doors of the famous Parisian monument remained closed all day, September 7, due to a strike, denouncing instructions aimed at limiting the presence of "female employees of the Eiffel Tower, including those of service companies", during the visit of a delegation from the religious association Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). “Some [employees] were asked to leave their jobs and move away from the premises,” the employees denounced in their press release, speaking without union mention.