An Italian employee is now facing charges after he allegedly failed to show up to work despite receiving full pay since 2005.
A man, dubbed the “King of Absences”, is now facing a multitude of charges after it was reported the employee had not turned up to his job since 2005.
Employed as a hospital worker in the city of Catanzaro, Italy, it is thought that the employee received a total of £464,000 over the past 15 years – despite not completing his role.
According to a police report, the man allegedly threatened the hospital director, who was his manager, in order to prevent her from filing a report about his absenteeism in 2005.
As such, it is thought that, after the director’s retirement, no other member of the Human Resources department at the hospital checked his attendance or noticed his absence. This allowed the employee to continue to skip work without facing repercussions.
He is now facing a variety of charges including extortion, forgery and abuse of office.
A similar ordeal occurred in 2016 with a Spanish civil servant who failed to turn up to his job for at least six years. However, officials warned it could have been up to 14 years of absenteeism.
This employee’s absence was only noticed when he was due to receive an award, commemorating him for 20 years in his role.
The employee confessed that he did not report his absenteeism earlier as he financially supported his family and was afraid of being discriminated against due to his age by employers, making it difficult for him to find another job.
The worker also claimed that he was a victim of workplace bullying due to his family’s political views.
He further told officials that he did go into the office during this time, albeit not following a regular schedule.
In this case, the civil servant was fined the equivalent of £21,000, a year’s salary for the worker after tax was deducted.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
