Owners of a California restaurant will have to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages after federal investigators found they hired a priest in an attempt to get employees to admit workplace "sins," an act of retaliation officials deemed "shameless."
Che Garibaldi Inc., the owner of three Taqueria Garibaldi locations in California, reportedly hired a person identified as a priest to "get the sins out" of employees during work hours, the U.S. Department of Labor said. Labor officials began looking at the restaurant chain in November 2021 for wage theft when they found out a fake priest had been meeting with employees to obtain confessions of their wrongdoing against the employer.
The alleged priest asked employees a variety of questions, including if they had stolen from the employer, been late to work, or if they had any bad intentions towards management.
“Under oath, an employee of Taqueria Garibaldi explained how the restaurant offered a supposed priest to hear their workplace ‘sins’ while other employees reported that a manager falsely claimed that immigration issues would be raised by the department’s investigation,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin in San Francisco. “This employer’s despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation and prevent the recovery of unpaid wages.”
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Investigators also found out that the restaurant denied employees overtime pay, illegally paid managers from the employee tip pool, and threatened employees with "adverse immigration consequences" if they cooperated with the Department of Labor. The chain also fired a worker who they believed had complained to the department, officials said.
The Diocese of Sacramento denied knowing the alleged priest, The New York Times reported.
