Beteget jelentettek a római rendőrök

More than 80 per cent of Rome‘s police called in sick on New Year’s Eve

More than 80 per cent of Rome‘s police officers called in sick on New Year’s Eve as 600,000 revellers descended on Italy‘s capital city to see in 2015.

The stunning mass desertion sent shockwaves through Italian politics, with prime minister Matteo Renzi expressing his dismay on Twitter and promising to change the rules for public sector workers.

Renzi tweeted: “I read that 83 per cent of police did not work ‘because of illness’ on December 31.

“This is why we will change the rules of public sector employment in 2015.”

Tourists and locals set off illegal fireworks around the Colosseum and in Rome‘s historic piazzas with impunity, and the city’s mayor vowed the AWOL officers will be punished.

He wrote on Facebook: “They didn’t manage to ruin the party, but those responsible will have to be held to account.”

The municipal police, known as “vigili”, put their absence down to a dispute over pay and conditions rather than laziness or a desire to join the celebrations or to party. As well as claiming they were too ill to work, some officers insisted they were giving blood or cited unspecified physical ‘disabilities’.

“There are 5,900 of us and there should be 9,400,” the head of the police union, Stefano Giannini, was reported as saying by the Telegraph.

 “With these numbers we can no longer provide a 24-hour service, seven days a week.”
Rome‘s police commander Raffaele Clemente described the absences as ‘absolutely unjustified‘. 

‘I can only condemn the attitude of those who have tried to sabotage the New Year festivities,’ he said, adding that the action had ‘put at risk people’s safety but also the good name of the entire local police force and the city of Rome.’