Italian Hospital Worker Accused Of Getting Paid For 15 Years Without Ever Showing Up

An Italian hospital worker is being investigated, having been on full pay for 15 years but failing to turn up for a single shift.

According to Italian news agency Ansa, the 66-year-old bloke had earned a whopping €538,000 (£464,000 / AUD $835,000) in wages since he stopping coming into the Pugliese Ciaccio hospital, located in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro, in 2005.

The Public Prosecutor's Office of Catanzaro has accused the man of using a variety of tactics to prevent a return to work, including allegedly threatening the hospital director from filing a disciplinary report about his absenteeism.

That director resigned and her successor wasn't aware of the situation, meaning his absence continued without the human resources department being aware anything was amiss.

The Ciaccio hospital employee is now under investigation for alleged fraud, extortion and abuse of office.

Six other managers are also being investigated about their knowledge or role in helping with the employee's alleged absenteeism.

Italian media have described the public sector worker as the ''king of absentees', according to The Guardian.

Police launched an investigation into the man, codenamed 'Part Time'.

Officers were tasked with getting attendance records and statements from colleagues to see whether the 67-year-old was actually turning up for work. It's unclear what officially sparked the investigation considering the hospital director and HR department weren't aware of anything wrong.

Italy introduced legislation back in 2016 to cut down on public sector workers being absent from their job.

The Guardian reports the law was brought in after a high-profile inquiry found absenteeism was absolutely rife in the public sector.

Employees were found to be clocking on for a shift and then going canoeing, shopping or being out with friends. Others were using the lax laws to simply clock on and then head back to bed.

Topics: World News, News, Italy

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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