OUT OF SIGHT

Eiffel Tower Staff Strike Over Shocking Order to Female Workers

The directive related to a visit by a religious group.

The Eiffel Tower closed on Monday amid a staff strike after management allegedly ordered female employees to stay out of sight while a Hindu group toured the structure. The organization, Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), is based in Ahmedabad, India. Around 100 of its members toured the tower on Saturday, when “women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there,” Diane Davoine, a union representative for the staff, told CNN. “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.” The Eiffel Tower Operating Company said the tour group had requested limited “interactions with women.” BAPS Paris disputes the claim. “It was never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender, and any suggestion to the contrary does not reflect the spirit or values of our fellowship or the delegation,” the group said in a statement to CNN. Local authorities have ordered an investigation, and Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has called the alleged directive “not acceptable.” The tower reopened on Tuesday.