Worker complains he's paid $128,000 to eat sandwiches after job cut his duties 'down to nothing'

A man from Ireland has had his work duties 'hacked down to nothing', but he still earns a cool $128,000 (£105,000) a year while he eats sandwiches and reads the newspaper.

Dermot Alastair Mills, a finance manager from Ireland's national railway network Irish Rail, has been talking at a hearing into his complaint under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

According to the Irish Independent, he alleges he was subjected to penalisation as a whistleblower when he raised concerns about accounting matters at the railway network.

Irish Rail do not dispute that Mills made a protected disclosure but has always denied that they penalised him.

With his now unique working environment, Mills says he either works from home or the office - with the latter, him not appearing till 10am.

Viacheslav Iakobchuk / Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking on the average day at work for himself, Mills said: "I buy two newspapers, the Times and the Independent, and a sandwich. I go into my cubicle, I turn on my computer, I look at emails.

"There are no emails associated with work, no messages, no communications, no colleague communications.

"I sit and I read the newspaper and I eat my sandwich. Then about 10.30am, if there’s an email which requires an answer, I answer it. If there’s work associated with it, I do that work."

"I’d say if I got something that requires me to do work once in a week I’d be thrilled."

Mills added that he sometimes takes lunch as early as 11:30am, and often doesn't return to work till around 2:30pm or even 3pm.

"If there’s nothing to be done, I go home," he said.

Mills’ representative and former Irish Rail HR chief John Keenan, asked: “You’re paid €121,000 for doing nothing?”

In which Mills replied: "Yes – when I say to do nothing, I mean to not use my skills."

Andrew Summers / Stockimo / Alamy Stock Photo

Mills was managing a debt portfolio worth €8 million (£6.8 million).

He said that he observed certain issues with debtors' and even tried to raise red flags 'all over the place'.

The problems for Mills with Irish rail started nine years ago when he made a report to the Irish Rail chief as well as the transport minister.

In the report, he claimed that he was not allowed to take responsibility for a number of tasks at the company.

Tom Mallon from Irish Rail suggested that Mills was 'looking around for some way to explain your position without looking at yourself'.