Three Taqueria Garibaldi locations in California cheated employees out of money and even used a fake priest of spy on them, the Labor Department said. (Screenshot: KTXL)
The U.S. Department of Labor announced on Monday that a restaurant company committed an array of work violations against their employees, including getting a fake priest to fish for confessions of workplace “sins” by staff.
“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,” they wrote.
This concerns Che Garibaldi Inc, which runs Taqueria Garibaldi two locations in Sacramento, California, and one in the city of Roseville, authorities said. It agreed to a consent judgment in May, the government said. They and owners and operators Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo, and Alejandro Rodriguez were ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to 35 employees. They must also pay $5,000 in civil money penalties.
An employee testified that the restaurant offered employees a “priest” to hear confession during work.
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This priest urged staff to “get the sins out,” the witness said, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. He asked if they had stolen from the company, been late for work, did anything to hurt the company, or if they had bad intentions toward the organization.
The Labor Department said that they discovered that Taqueria Garibaldi denied employees overtime pay, illegally paid managers from the employee tip pool, threatened employees with relation and immigration problems, and fired a person who they thought complained 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,” 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.” He said, “The U.S. Department of Labor and its 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.”
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