LONG LUNCH

Spanish civil servant skips work for years without anyone noticing

Only when Joaquin Garcia, a Spanish civil servant, was due to collect an award for two decades of loyal service did anyone realise that he had not shown up to work for at least SIX years.

Garcia, a 69-year-old engineer, began working for the local authority in the city of Cadiz in 1990, and in 1996 was posted to the municipal water board, where his job was (17)______ .

In 2010, when Garcia — now retired — was due to collect his long-service medal, the man who had hired him, deputy mayor Mr. Fernandez, wondered where he was.

After the former manager of the water board, who (18)_____ , told Fernandez he had not seen his employee for several years, the deputy mayor called the engineer in. A court fined Garcia €27,000, the equivalent (19)_____ , having earlier found that the engineer did not appear to have occupied his office for “at least six years” and had done “absolutely no work” between 2007 and 2010, the year before he retired.

Garcia told the court that he had turned up to the office, although he admitted (20)_____ . He said he was the victim of workplace bullying because of his family’s socialist politics and (21)_____ .

His friends told El Mundo that the engineer had been unwilling to report his accusations of bullying because he “had a family to support” and was worried that (22)_____ .