An Italian hospital worker was absent from work for more than a decade and still got a salary. Now the pensioner has to answer in court.
Catanzaro – An Italian hospital employee came up with a slightly different type of passive income. According to media reports, the man did not show up for work for 15 years and still “earned” more than half a million euros – more precisely: 538,000 euros.
As reported by the BBC, the now 67-year-old is said to have turned up for work in 2005 at the Ciaccio Hospital in Catanzaro. Since then, the “king of the absent”, as he is called in the press, has not lifted a finger for the hospital.
Man absent from work for 15 years: superiors threatened
For years nobody noticed that the man was absent from the hospital. However, he kept getting into quarrels with his superiors and threatening them. As early as 2005, the man had been noticed negatively by his employer, reports nymag.com . Because of his threats, the supervisor at the time waived disciplinary proceedings.
As part of the “People Unboxed” study for Automatic Data Processing (ADP), more than 2,000 employees in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK were interviewed. The result: around a fifth think it’s okay to turn blue at work – without reporting sickness (* FR reported). It was apparently becoming a lifestyle for the hospital worker.
After 15 years: pensioner is on trial
Now the pensioner has to answer to the court, investigators managed to convict him. He is to be convicted of fraud, extortion and abuse of office. In addition, six other people are suspected of being involved in the case.
According to Deutschlandfunk Nova, a similar case occurred in the Italian village of Boscotrecase. There, an officer took his colleagues’ IDs and swiped them through the time card, so that everyone skipped their work day. But they too were caught: a surveillance camera observed the blue-collar action of the officers, who consequently had to fear for their jobs. * FR is an offer from IPPEN.Media.
