The 51-year-old disgruntled professor, Cinzia Paolina De Lio was a teacher in the Italian city of Venice, but the country’s Ministry of Education found out she missed work for two decades out of the two-and-a-half decades of her public service.
Reports say she was sacked in 2017 after an inspection unveiled her absenteeism, but she challenged the decision at the court and was reinstated the next year.
However, Italy’s Ministry of Education went to the country’s Supreme Court to challenge the lower court’s decision that reinstated De Lio. The ministry argued that she missed work completely during her first decade as a professor, and justified her continued absence in the next 14 years with a variety of documents, from maternity and breastfeeding leaves to permissions to assist disabled family members.
It is reported that De Lio filed for filed over 100 requests for justified absence.
According to Italian newspaper La Republica, during the last 24 years, De Lio filed 67 certificates of sick leave, 16 requests for time off for personal reasons, 7 periods of paid parental leave, 24 requests to assist family members with various disabilities, 5 requests for participation in various training courses, two leaves of absence for work-related accidents, as well as maternity, breastfeeding leaves and several requests for leave to attend to the health of her children.
Some old students of Professor De Lio have given negative remarks about her work attitude.
“She never had continuity: she came for a few days and then took long periods of sick leave. We changed several substitute teachers or, sometimes, they made us leave school early,” Francesca B., now a 22-year-old university student, told La Republica.
Recently, the Italian Supreme Court upheld the decision to terminate De Lio’s contract, saying the authorities were justified in dismissing her.