Eiffel Tower workers go on strike after female staff 'sidelined' for Hindu group's visit

Staff at the Eiffel Tower went on strike on Monday, “shocked” by the purported exclusion of female employees during a visit by a Hindu delegation days earlier, according to staff and management.

In a statement issued by the CGT trade union, staff condemned “workplace instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and rendered invisible on the basis of their gender”.

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The group's visit to the Paris landmark on Saturday coincided with the inauguration of a temple near the French capital built by the Hindu denomination Bochsanwasi Akshar Purshottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS).

The Eiffel Tower's operator stated that the delegation had requested that the visit be organised in such a way as to limit “interactions with women” and acknowledged that “these conditions should not have been accepted”.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire expressed support for the strike in a post on X, describing the exclusion of female workers as “unacceptable” and contrary to the “values that the Eiffel Tower stands for”.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)