Employer accidentally honors man who skipped work for six years for his 'long service'

In an astonishing case, one man managed to skip work for at least six years without anyone noticing. The situation only came to light when he was about to receive an award for 20 years of loyalty and dedicated service. The Guardian reports that this shocking story from 2010 involves Joaquin Garcia, a 69-year-old engineer from Spain who was employed by the local government.

Joaquin Garcia began his career in the southwestern city of Cadiz in 1990 and was assigned to the municipal water board, Agua de Cadiz, in 1996 to supervise a wastewater treatment plant. His prolonged absence went unnoticed due to a classic case of miscommunication: the water company assumed the city council was overseeing his work, while the city council believed the water company was responsible, according to USA Today. It wasn't until 2010, when deputy mayor Jorge Blas Fernandez, who had hired Garcia, began searching for him to present a long-service medal, that the situation was finally discovered.

Aware that Garcia was still on the payroll, Fernandez grew curious about his whereabouts. "I thought, where is this man? Is he still there? Has he retired? Has he died?" he told El Mundo. The former manager of the water board, whose office was opposite Garcia's, mentioned to Fernandez that he hadn't seen Garcia for many years. This led the deputy mayor to call Garcia to investigate the situation. Fernandez shared, "I asked him: what are you doing? What did you do yesterday? And the previous month? He could not answer." As a result, a legal case was filed against Garcia for not doing a day's work since 2004.

Denying the allegations, Garcia claimed he came to work every day, though not during regular business hours. He further stated that he was a victim of workplace bullying due to his family's socialist politics, which led to him being sidelined at the water board. Despite being paid a salary of €37,000 ($40,000) a year, the court fined him €27,000 ($29,341), equivalent to about one year of his salary after tax, which was the maximum the company could legally demand, reported BBC. The court discovered that Garcia had not occupied his office for "at least six years" and had done "absolutely no work" between 2007 and 2010. By the time of the court's findings, the 69-year-old was not fired as he had already retired in 2011.

Friends of Garcia told local media that he refrained from reporting the harassment allegations because he "had a family to support" and feared he would not find another job at his age. They mentioned that his depression led him to see a psychiatrist. However, during his absence from work, Garcia became an avid reader of philosophy and an expert on the works of Dutch philosopher Spinoza. Reports indicated that Garcia had written to the mayor, requesting not to pay the fine and stating that he would be seeking a review of the judgment.

This article was originally published July 14, 2024. It has since been updated.