Posted on 02/18/2016 11:04:14 AM PST by nickcarraway
A civil servant in southern Spain failed to turn up at the office for six years but no-one noticed and he still collected his salary each month, it has emerged.
The long-term absenteeism of JoaquÃn GarcÃa, an engineer employed by the municipal water company in Cádiz, was only discovered when he was considered for an award for performing 20 years of loyal service.
The case emerged this week after a court ordered him to pay a fine of â¬27,000 for his prolonged absence, a figure that amounted to less than one year of his annual â¬37,000 salary, the maximum that could be reclaimed.
He had been sent by the city council to oversee the building of a waste-water treatment plant in the southwestern city, but records show that GarcÃa had not turned up for work since 2004.
This was only discovered six years later when he was due to be presented with a commemorative plaque after an apparent 20 years of loyal service to the council.
"We thought that he had been supervised by the water company but that was not the case," local deputy mayor Jorge Blas Fernández, who originally given him the job, told El Mundo.
"I wondered whether he was still working there, had he retired, had he died? But the payroll showed he was still receiving a salary," Blas explained.
According to Blas: "I called him up and asked him ´What did you do yesterday? The month before, the month before that?' He didnât know what to say."
Garcia, now 69 and retired, claims he was the victim of workplace bullying and had turned up each day only to find he had no work to do.
He claimed he did not report the situation because he was worried it could lead to an end to his employment and he had a family to support.
Instead, he read extensively and became an "expert on the philosopher Spinoza".
Hmmm. I actually showed up for 36 years and hardly anyone noticed. LOL!
Well at least he did something with all that free time although I wouldn’t have picked Spinoza.
Donde esta mi grapadora roja?
Too bad King Opie didn’t take the last seven years off.
So it wasn't completely wasted time. Think of all those people who make life worse for others by making a point of going to work each day, e.g. Diversity Trainers, Sexual Harassment Counselors, Green Advocates, etc.
“Think of all those people who make life worse for others by making a point of going to work each day...”
I worry more about the ones that are allowed to VOTE!.
U R not helpin’ those of us who are still active fed govs bro!
I would gladly pay the congress to stay home. It would be a lot cheaper for us.
I think hr’s kind of apt that he picked Spinoza.
Considering most “civil servant’s” job consists of making citizen’s live more difficult, probably better for everyone that he didn’t do it.
You know with “civil servants” like Lois Lerner and many in the VA, we might be better off if they took a page from this guy’s book and disappeared.
LOL! No fed. Private contractor.
I’d be willing to give a pay raise if 99% of the Federal government would stay home. It would be cheaper in the long run.
Used to work for the US gov’mt ...
Ex-fed and glad of it.
2. What does it say when an 'employee' who fails to show up for 6 years get a 20 year award? Only in Government!
Restores yur faith in the work ethic, eh?
Beats claiming a fake disability. I guess.
Actually, I say i makes management look worse than the employee in question.
How do you tell when a government worker dies on the job?
They stop going home................
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