Italian 'king of absentees' allegedly skips work for 15 years, gets paid $860k

Meet the "king of absentees".

A man working in a hospital in Italy recently earned the moniker from the media after he was accused of skipping work for 15 years.

He was paid a total of €538,000 (S$860,000) even though he hasn't turned up for work at Pugliese Ciaccio hospital since 2005.

The man, now 66, is being investigated for fraud, extortion and abuse of office, while six of his superiors at the hospital are being probed over their connection with his alleged absenteeism, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

A civil servant assigned to work in the hospital in 2005, he was said to have threatened the hospital director to stop her from filing a disciplinary report over his absenteeism in the same year.

The arrests were made as part of an investigation codenamed Part Time where police looked into absenteeism in Italy by gathering evidence from attendance and salary records as well as witness statements from colleagues. 

According to the police, the man's absence remained undetected for years as his attendance was never checked by the hospital director's successor or the human resources department. 

However, he wasn't the only employee with a prolonged absence.

In 2015, a civil servant in India was fired after wilfully going "on leave" for 24 years.

The following year, a Spanish civil servant was fined $41,000 for taking a six-year "siesta" which was only noticed by company officials when they were preparing to give him a long service award.

In 2019, an Indonesian civil servant working in West Aceh Fisheries and Maritime Agency was dismissed after being absent from work for two years.

xavierpoh@asiaone.com