It took 15 years, but two men in Spain were finally caught after routinely skipping work.
The two men, a driver and gardener in the city of Jerez de la Frontera, continued to cash their checks despite being absent on a daily basis. A report conducted by the town council found that the two men didn’t work a day in 2015 and hadn’t worked at all in 2016.
This issue was first reported when the council’s human resources department was looking at staff labor records. The council soon found that these men had routinely skipped work going back as far as 15 years and found that a number of other staffers, including police officers, had also been skipping work on a regular basis.
This is also not the first time this has happened with a government worker in Spain. A civil servant skipped work for six years before being found out. He was busted after being considered for an award.
But despite the truancy, the General Confederation of Labor union has come out and defended its two members.
The CGT union, to which both men belong, has defended its unionists, arguing that they were simply taking off their “accumulated days” and those of other employees, which can be shared.
It argued that their absence was part of a “tacit agreement” with the various town councils over the 15 year period.
After being questioned by Human Resources, one of the men returned to work, while the other produced a written statement explaining that he had accumulated the union hours of his colleagues.
The town hall, however, said this was “insufficient to free him from work for the rest of the year, which was his intention.”
Since the investigation began, one of the men has returned to work. Both are still awaiting disciplinary action. As far as we know, you either love the guys’ ability to get out of work on a daily basis, or you hate their lack of work ethic.
