A hospital employee in Italy has been accused of being
absent from work on full pay for 15 years. The man, employed in Ciaccio, a
hospital in the Italian city of Catanzaro located in the southern part of the
country, stopped coming to work in 2005, as per various media reports.

The man, who has reportedly been facing investigation for
fraud, extortion and abuse of office, continued to be paid a salary that, in
total, amounted to €538,000 (£464,000) over 15 years.

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Six managers are also being investigated for allegedly playing
a part in this incident.

In 2005, the accused allegedly also made threats against the
hospital’s Director to stop her from filing a disciplinary report against him.

Such instances of long absenteeism is rife in Italy’s public
sector, and the arrests are the result of an ongoing police investigation into
the ‘trend’.

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After the director’s retirement, the accused is stated to
have gone on with his rampant absenteeism due to the successive directors or
human resource never checking up on his attendance.

The police investigations, which largely began in 2016 after
the Italian government enforced a law against such long-term absentees, saw police
officials observing people and mapping the rampant nature of the problem in the
Southern European nation.