Eiffel Tower shuts in row over sidelined women staff

The Eiffel Tower was closed all day on Monday after staff went on strike over the removal of female colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group, workers and management said.

Staff at the Paris landmark condemned what they described as professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex during the delegation's visit.

SETE, the company that operates the Eiffel Tower, said the delegation had requested that the visit be organised to limit interactions with women. The company said those conditions should not have been accepted.

Paris official Emmanuel Gregoire said on X that it was unacceptable for Tower management to agree to the delegation's conditions.

A staff representative said the Eiffel Tower, which receives nearly seven million visitors a year according to its website, would reopen as normal on Tuesday.

SETE president Ariel Weil told AFP that the company would seek to establish what happened and draw conclusions.

The visit took place on the same day as a cultural boat procession on the Seine organised by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha spiritual movement, known as BAPS. BAPS consecrated its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.