Jorge Blas Fernández is the Deputy Mayor of Cádiz, Spain, and the hiring manager for the waste water treatment plant. He also has a lot of faith in the loyalty and assignment of positions under his authority. So much so, he did not check in on a supervising engineer for nearly six years. If he had paused to do so, he would have noticed this specific employee was out of work for that time while collecting a paycheck. Furthermore, for three years (2007 - 2010), the employee was assigned to a post that required “absolutely no work.”
Joaquín García was scheduled to receive a special reward for his 20 years of service. The loyalty commendation was going to be presented by Fernández, but when he arrived at García’s post he noticed his employee was not just gone for the day, but had been gone for several years.
“Has he retired? Has he died?” Fernández pondered to reporters when he was informed of the stunning news of the employee’s disappearance. “He was still on the payroll,” the Deputy Mayor protested. It appears the hiring manager believed the water company was monitoring the engineer’s performance, and the water company believed Fernández was keeping tabs on the phantom official.
García was busted, but claimed he suffered “political” bullying, and was transferred to a position at the water company which is run by local authorities. García alleges the post had no work to be done, so he brushed up on his reading.
The engineer knew the responsible thing to do was to report his departure, but worried he would not be able to find another job at his age while taking care of his family. The courts have fined García for a year’s worth of his salary, $30,392 (U.S.) He is asking authorities to forgive the fine, claiming while he may not have fulfilled his entire shift, he still did show up for work.