California Restaurant Hired A Fake Priest To Learn Staff's Workplace 'Sins' Through Confession

A restaurant in California is in hot water after the U.S. Department of Labor announced Monday an array of work violations committed by the company, including hiring a fake priest to make employees confess workplace "sins," according to a report.

The owners and operators of the Che Garibaldi Inc. that runs Taqueria Garibaldi in two locations in Sacramento and Roseville City, identified as Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo and Alejandro Rodriguez, were ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to a total of 35 employees per a consent judgment ordered in May, Law & Crime reported.

"Federal wage and hour investigators have seen corrupt employers try all kinds of scams to shortchange workers and to intimidate or retaliate against employees, but a northern California restaurant's attempt to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace 'sins' may be among the most shameless," the U.S. Department of Labor said in a press release.

The company was also ordered to pay $5,000 in civil money penalties.

One of the restaurant's employees testified that they were offered a "priest" to hear confession during work, who then urged them to "get their sins out," according to the Department of Labor.

The priest asked employees questions about stealing from the company, tardiness, doing anything to hurt the company, or if they had any bad intentions against the restaurant and its management.

The court also found after an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division that the restaurant denied employees overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, a clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

They also learned that the employer illegally paid managers from the employee tip pool and threatened them with retaliation and adverse immigration consequences if they cooperated with the Labor Department.

They had also fired one worker suspected of filing a complaint to the department.

"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," Marc Pilotin, regional solicitor of labor in San Francisco, said.

"This employer's despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation and prevent the recovery of unpaid wages."

The Labor Department and the Solicitor's Office "will not tolerate workplace retaliation and will act swiftly to make clear that immigration status has no bearing on workers' rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act."