A California restaurant has been forced to pay employees $140,000 in back wages and damages after hiring a priest to extract confessions.
According to the US Department of Labor, an employee testified that owner Che Garibaldi, who owns two Taqueria Garibaldi locations in northern California, hired a fake priest to hear confessions during work hours and “get the sins out,” including asking them if they were late for work, stole money from the restaurant, or had “bad intentions” toward their employer.
US Federal investigators describe the company’s actions as “the most shameless” acts of corruption an employer has committed against its 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 a statement on Tuesday, June 20.
The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento verified that “no evidence of any connection” between the priest and their diocese was discovered.
“While we don’t know who the person in question was, we are completely confident he was not a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento,” a diocese spokesman 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.
Investigators also found that the restaurant denied employees overtime pay, managers were paid bonuses from the employee tip pool 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 the recovery of unpaid wages,” Pilotin said.
