Patrick Branco Ruivo, the managing director of the Eiffel Tower’s operating company SETE, announced on Tuesday that he will step down before the end of the year following intense scrutiny over a private VIP visit that excluded female staff members. The controversy, which triggered a crippling one-day strike, compounds years of mounting pressure regarding opaque financial administration, safety incidents, and infrastructure decay at Paris’s most iconic monument.
A Private Tour and a Public Exclusion
The breaking point for the Iron Lady’s management arrived on Sept. 5, during a private visit by members of an ultra-conservative Hindu delegation. To accommodate the group’s conditions, female employees working at the monument were instructed to abandon their posts and conceal themselves to prevent any interaction with the visitors. The direct exclusion of women from the workplace sparked immediate outrage among the monument’s 403-strong workforce, leading to a swift union mobilization.
Just two days after the incident, staff members walked off the job, shuttering the attraction for an entire day. The backlash prompted Emmanuel Grégoire, the official from the city, to announce two separate investigations—one conducted by an independent external firm and another led directly by the city administration. SETE is 99% owned by the Paris City Hall, placing direct political accountability on municipal leadership.
Disfunctions, Financial Strain, and Falling Debris
The first investigative report has already corroborated internal grievances, identifying severe structural failures in how protocol visits are organized. SETE released a statement on Tuesday acknowledging “a series of disfunctions and fallos in the management of protocolary visits and in the organization of this visit in particular, which led to the sidelining of female staff, an unacceptable situation.”
Yet, this discrimination scandal is merely the latest fracture in a deteriorating administrative foundation. Employees have spent years highlighting profound financial, safety, and maintenance vulnerabilities. According to a report by the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC), the operating company lost 300 million euros between 2020 and 2024, while improvement and maintenance works faced a 156 million euro overcost in 2025.
Operational hazards have increasingly spilled over into public view. High winds previously tore a chunk of metal railing from the upper tiers, sending heavy debris plummeting into the empty Champ de Mars during early morning hours. In a separate weather-related incident, a television screen ripped loose and crashed onto the public esplanade. Staff members also report chronic electrical failures during heavy rainstorms that routinely paralyze the monument’s video surveillance network.
A History of Labor Unrest at the Iron Lady
The departure of Branco Ruivo—who was originally appointed in 2018 under former mayor Anne Hidalgo—caps years of turbulent labor relations. Early in 2024, Eiffel Tower employees staged a strike to protest chronic underfunding by City Hall, warning that maintenance budgets were inadequate to preserve the aging structure. Unions subsequently threatened further strikes during the Paris Olympic Games before reaching a conditional truce.
Despite ongoing maintenance disputes, security lapses continue to challenge the site’s administration. With business turnover sitting at 156 million euros and mounting structural repairs required, City Hall faces a monumental task in stabilizing both the leadership and the physical fabric of Paris’s most famous landmark.
