Paris:The head of the company that operates the Eiffel Tower is to leave his post at the end of the year after female employees were excluded from a visit by a Hindu religious group at the Paris landmark.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, director general of the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), will step down following an investigation by an independent firm into operational failures surrounding the group’s visit on September 5.

The investigation found that the failures had led to female members of staff being kept away from the delegation, which SETE described in a statement as an “unacceptable situation”. Ruivo has headed the company since the end of 2018.

The 330-metre (1,083-foot) tower, one of Paris’s most recognisable landmarks and a major tourist attraction that draws around seven million visitors each year, was closed on September 7 after staff went on strike. A union official described the management instructions surrounding the visit as “unacceptable”.

Tensions had risen among employees after management instructed female workers not to come into contact with members of the delegation from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha.

Known as BAPS, the organisation is a global religious and civic group within the Swaminarayan tradition of Hinduism. Its members had been in Paris for celebrations marking the inauguration of a traditional Hindu stone temple.

BAPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement.