Italian hospital worker ‘skipped work for 15 years and still got full pay’

A hospital worker in Italy has become a national record-breaker after he allegedly skipped work for a staggering 15 years.

The public sector employee is accused of ceasing to turn up to work at the Pugliese Ciaccio hospital in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro as far back as 2005.

Despite this, the civil servant – who had been assigned a role at the site – continued to be paid a monthly salary of €538,000 (£464,000) over the years.

Now, aged 67, he is being investigated for fraud, extortion and abuse of office, Italian news agency Ansa reports.

Six managers at the hospital are also facing charges over their colleague’s alleged absenteeism.

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The man is accused of making threats against the hospital’s director back in 2005 to stop her from filing a disciplinary report over his failure to show up for work.

The director then retired and the man continued to bunk off because her successor never checked his attendance, nor did the human resources department, police said.

It comes five years after the Italian government tightened a law against the workshy following several high-profile police investigations into the extent of absenteeism across the public sector.

In one example, police used secret CCTV cameras to catch 35 town hall workers in Sanremo who had been cheating the time management system for at least two years, the Guardian reports.

The wives of two of the workers had been using their husbands’ staff cards to clock on for them, while other staff members tapped in before going shopping, out with friends, or even canoeing.