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New York (Trends Wide) — A California restaurant was ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to employees after it hired a false priest to extract confessions from workers, in what federal investigators describe as “the most brazen” acts of corruption. that an employer has taken against its staff.
The US Department of Labor claims an employee testified that owner Che Garibaldi, who operates two Taqueria Garibaldi locations in Northern California, hired a fake priest to listen to confessions during work hours and “extract the sins,” including asking them if they were late for work, stole money from the restaurant, or had “bad intentions” toward their employer.
“Under oath, a Taqueria Garibaldi employee explained how the restaurant offered to listen to a so-called priest for his work ‘sins,’ while other employees reported that a manager falsely claimed immigration issues would be raised by the Department’s investigation. [de Trabajo]”, said the regional labor attorney, Marc Pilotin, in the statement.
The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento confirmed that it found “no proof of connection” between the false priest and his diocese. “Although we do not know who the person in question was, we are completely certain that he was not a priest of the diocese of Sacramento,” a spokesman for the diocese told the Catholic News Agency last week.
Garibaldi and three other restaurant owners and operators were ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to 35 employees. The restaurant will also have to pay $5,000 in civil penalties.
Taqueria Garibaldi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators also found that the restaurant denied employees overtime pay, managers were paid bonuses from employees’ tip pools, and some employees faced “adverse immigration consequences” for cooperating with investigators.
“This employer’s despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation and prevent recovery of unpaid wages,” Pilotin said.
