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Italian hospital employee accused of skipping work for 15 years

A hospital worker described as the “king of absentees” by Italian media is being investigated after allegedly skipping work for 15 years - but receiving his full salary.

Published: 22 April 2021 10:27 CEST

Italian hospital employee accused of skipping work for 15 years

Italian police said the man was caught out by an investigation codenamed 'Operation Part Time'. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

The man, employed at the Ciaccio hospital in the southern city of Catanzaro, Calabria, is accused of not turning up for work since 2005.

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

He was reportedly paid €538,000 (£464,000) in total over the years he is thought not to have been working.

READ ALSO: Italian grandma tips off police to bring down mafia clan

Six managers at the hospital are also being investigated in connection with the alleged absenteeism.

The man was caught out by a police investigation, codenamed ‘Operation Part Time’, into absenteeism and suspected fraud in the Italian public sector

He was reportedly assigned to the job in 2005, at which point he is alleged to have stopped going in.

He is also accused of threatening the hospital director to stop her from reporting his absenteeism.

After that manager retired, neither her successor nor human resources ever noticed his absence, police said.

In 2016 the Italian government tightened a law aimed at stopping absenteeism, after police uncovered a string of cases of public sector workers pocketing pay without turning up for work.

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President of Italy's Liguria region resigns after arrest over corruption probe

Giovanni Toti, 55, has been under house arrest since May as part of an investigation that has also implicated nine others, including the former head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in the country.

Contacted by AFP, a regional civil servant confirmed media reports of Toti’s resignation, who had been suspended from his post since his arrest.

Toti, a former member of the European Parliament elected as Liguria’s president in 2015 and again in 2020, has said he is innocent of accusations of bribe-taking.

Prosecutors allege he accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from two prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included efforts to privatise a public beach and speeding up the 30-year lease renewal for a Genoa port terminal for a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

READ ALSO: Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Toti is a former journalist who was close to late PM Silvio Berlusconi. He is no longer aligned with a party but was backed by a right-wing coalition in the last election.

In a resignation letter published on the RaiNews website, Toti did not mention the accusations against him but instead listed his accomplishments as president and thanked his supporters.

“After three months of house arrest and the subsequent suspension from the office that voters have entrusted to me twice, I have decided that the time has come to tender my irrevocable resignation,” Toti wrote, according to RaiNews.

“I leave a region in order.”

Toti had more than a year remaining in his tenure as regional president. Under Italian law, new elections will have to be called within three months.

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