London: The iconic Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday after the staff staged a walkout over female employees being “moved away” for the visit of a Hindu religious group, authorities said.
The incident took place on Saturday during a visit by around 100 people linked to BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha), Euronews reported on Monday.
Diane Davoine, a union representative, told French TV that female workers had been “moved away from their workstations as the delegation passed by” during a visit on Saturday.
“During the visit of this delegation, women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there,” she told Reuters. Davoine also said management had since apologised to workers over the incident.
“So that absolutely does not go down well with the employees, with women obviously, who are all humiliated by what happened, by the way some were treated,” Davoine said.
She added: “Tensions mounted over the weekend, so this morning, the employees decided to meet: first, to open a dialogue with management, and second, to ensure that women are never treated this way at the company again.”
Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), the company that operates the monument in Paris, confirmed the delegation had asked the visit be organised to limit “interactions with women”, according to the AFP news agency.
The firm told AFP that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.
