Spanish civil servant’s six-year absence from work not noticed

Joaquin Garcia, a 69-year-old engineer at a municipal water company in Cadiz, was fined more than $30,300 after his employer discovered that he hadn’t reported for work for six years while attempting to present him an award for 20 years of service.

A Spanish civil servant is in hot water after his bosses found he had not gone to work for six years.

The court ruled against Garcia and fined him 27,000 euros.

He added he was purposefully put in his job as punishment for his family’s political leanings and there wasn’t actually any work to carry out. He was paid €37,000 (AU$58,400) per year by a water company run by local authorities.

A court fined him with 27,000 euros, the equivalent after tax of one year of his annual salary.

Garcia’s absence from work pales in comparison to a jazz-loving Italian coalminer with an aversion to small spaces who managed to dodge going to work for 35 years. This is the legal maximum that can be claimed as of now. The man denied the charges and said he was bullied by his colleagues. Apparently the confusion occurred because the water company thought he was being supervised by the local authorities and vice versa.

Individuals told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo which he was unwilling to report it as he stressed that at his age he wouldn’t get another occupation, and had a family to provide for.

The boss of the company admitted to have not seen the employee for years.

They said that he dedicated himself, and he did go to work, although not for complete business hours daily.

According to reports, he used the free time to become an “expert” in the philosophies of Spinoza.