SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento Mexican restaurant must pay out $140,000 to employees in back wages and damages after hiring a priest to hear employees’ confessions during work hours.
It comes after an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division after Taqueria Garibaldi employees alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Employees said the restaurants were denying employees overtime pay after they worked more than 40 hours in a work week.
The Department of Labor also found the employer paid managers from the employee tip pool illegally, threatened employees and immigration consequences, and fired a worker they believed complained to the department.
During litigation in federal court, an employee of Che Garibaldi Inc. testified that the restaurant brought in someone who identified as a priest to hear confessions during work hours. The employee said the person told workers to “get the sins out” and confess if they’d stolen from the employer, been late for work or had bad intentions for their employer.
The Department of Labor says the employer agreed to a consent judgment, which ordered Che Garibaldi and its owners and operators to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to 35 employees.
“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.”
The restaurant and its owners must also pay the department $5,000 in civil money penalties.
