The Eiffel Tower was forced to close on Monday after staff walked out over female workers being “sidelined” to accommodate a Hindu religious delegation.
Women working at the Paris landmark were removed from their positions and replaced by male colleagues during a private visit by around 100 members of a Hindu spiritual movement, according to staff and management.
The delegation had asked for arrangements to be made to limit “interactions with women”, the company operating the Eiffel Tower confirmed.
The CGT trade union condemned “workplace instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and rendered invisible on the basis of their gender”.
Female employees were reportedly told to leave their workstations, while women were prevented from entering or passing through certain areas during Saturday’s visit.
Diane Davoine, a staff union representative, said: “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 delegation comprised around 100 people connected to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu spiritual organisation.
The Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), which operates the landmark, admitted the conditions should never have been accepted.
It said the arrangements “were not in line with SETE’s values, nor with the principles of equality between men and women” and pledged to accept the “consequences”.
Ariel Weil, the company’s president and a Paris elected official, said: “We are going to shed light on what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions.”
He added: “It is clearly not an acceptable practice. I restate the Eiffel Tower’s commitment to republican values and to the equality of men and women.”
Management has since apologised to employees, according to Ms Davoine.
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BAPS said the visit had been “arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal opening hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others”.
The organisation apologised “for any pain or inconvenience caused”, adding: “We believe in the universal values of mutual respect and service.”
The row prompted condemnation from across France’s political divide.
Equality Minister Aurore Bergé said: “In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves. No dogma, no religion is above the laws of the Republic.”
Marine Le Pen declared that France would “never accept that women’s presence be ‘limited’.”
Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal added: “In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be.”
National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet said: “I refuse to allow women to be compelled to step aside in order to meet the demands of foreign visitors.”
BAPS describes itself as a “spiritual, volunteer-driven fellowship dedicated to improving society” through Hindu values and operates temples around the world, including in London.
The organisation consecrated its first major temple in France on Sunday, a day after the controversial Eiffel Tower visit.
The Eiffel Tower, which attracts close to seven million visitors annually, remained closed throughout Monday and was due to reopen as normal on Tuesday.
Ms Davoine said employees walked out to force talks with management and ensure female workers would never be subjected to similar treatment again.
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