西班牙小镇警察请病假抗议工资纠纷-凯发k8官网

almost the entire police force of a small town in southern spain have gone on sick leave in a dispute over payments.

西班牙南部一座小镇几乎所有的警察都请病假抗议工资纠纷。

fourteen policemen from valverde del camino say they are psychologically unfit for work after not receiving their salaries for four months.

they spent the day staging a sit-in protest at the town hall, instead of working.

however, they deny they are on strike, as that is illegal for police.

it is the latest ¹（表现，显示） of a major problem in spain, where the economic crisis has left many town councils and local governments with debts they say they are unable to pay.

plea for help

finally, the the patience of policemen in valverde del camino has worn out: 14 out of a total force of 16 officers have signed off sick, producing doctors' notes saying they are in no psychological state to work.

instead of ² criminals, they staged the sit-in on tuesday.

"we're living on credit - getting help from our mothers, fathers, brothers... whoever," jose manuel gonzales, one of the protesters, told the bbc.

"but it's impossible to go on like this any longer. we have to ask for help now, because our families can't stand this anymore."

there are only 13,000 residents in the town, in far south-western spain.

but successive mayors there have run up a staggering $74m (£??m) in debt: that's the most in the country per capita.

the true scale of the problem only emerged after local elections in spring, when power shifted to the ³ popular party for the first time in decades.
 
it is a pattern that is being repeated across the country, making ⁴ fear that these hidden, regional debts, will mean spain misses its target - of cutting the budget ⁵ to 6% of gdp by the end of the year.