Italian town hall closes offices after half of staff arrested for skipping work

'I'll probably have to shut down the town hall', says local mayor

Staff were filmed swiping multiple cards in order to cover for absent co-workers (Getty Images)

A small Italian town has been forced to shut down the majority of its municipal operations, after half of its town hall employees were arrested for skipping work.

Police in the town of Boscotrecase, south of Naples, arrested 23 public sector workers as part of a clamp down on systematic absenteeism taking place across Italy, leading the local mayor to close down a number of offices.

During a lengthy investigation, staff members were secretly filmed signing in before leaving to go about their personal business, with 200 cases revealed in all.

Meanwhile one man was caught trying to tamper with security cameras before swiping two cards, while others carried multiple swipe cards to register absent co-workers according to Reuters.

Certain workers even went as far as putting cardboard boxes over their heads to conceal their identities.

Boscotrecase’s heads of traffic police and accounting were among those arrested, on charges of fraud against the state of Italy.

“I’ll probably have to shut down the town hall,” Mayor Pietro Carotenuto told Sky Italia.

The 23 workers have been suspended from work for between six and 12 months, and may eventually be dismissed from their roles pending further investigations.

Figures released in March revealed nearly a quarter of Rome’s employees are off work at any one time, with most of those absent calling in sick.

In 2015 an average of 5,286 city workers out of a total of 23,083, around 22 per cent, were absent on any given day.

Last year, 35 public sector workers were arrested in the town of San Remo for dodging work and a further 195 placed under investigation for absenteeism.

In January this year Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi promised the national government would use an “iron fist” against anyone found to be skipping work and depriving municipal authorities of much-needed funds.

“These people are destroying the credibility of the great majority of public employees who work well,” he said in an interview with Canale 5.