The Department of Labor (DOL) ordered Taqueria Garibaldi, a taqueria in California, to pay $140,000 in back wages plus damages for infractions. The owners of the restaurant, which has locations in Sacramento and Roseville, are charged with unique infractions, including allegedly hiring a “fake” priest to take confessions of employees of their sins.

The DOL Sacramento District Office conducted the investigation, working with that department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in San Francisco, which litigated the case.

The DOL released a statement about the charges, saying the litigation in federal court was against the operating company for Taqueria Garibaldi, Che Garibaldi, Inc.

An employee testified against the company, saying the restaurant offered “employees a person identified as a priest to hear confessions during work hours.” The witness said the priest then encouraged the staff to “get the sins out” and then asked them if they had ever stolen from the company or “had stolen from the employer, been late for work, had done anything to harm their employer, or if they had bad intentions toward their employer.”

In court documents, employee Maria Parra said that the workplace confessions were nothing like she’d ever experienced with priests prior.

"He asked if I ever got pulled over for speeding, if I drank alcohol, or if I had stolen anything,” testified Ms. Parra. “The priest mostly had work-related questions, which I thought was strange. The priest asked if I had stolen anything at work, if I was late to my employment, if I did anything to harm my employer and if I had any bad intentions toward my employment."

The DOL said that Taqueria Garibaldi manipulated their employees by trying to keep them quiet and obstruct the then-ongoing investigation.

“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 workplace infractions described by the DOL were numerous. Investigators from the federal Wage and Hour Division found that Taqueria Garibaldi violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA, as per federal law, “establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.”

The investigators said the company denied paying overtime to the Taqueria's’ employees, who worked more than forty hours a week without overtime pay, which is prohibited by law.

The DOL said, in their statement, that Che Garibaldi, Inc., was "paying managers from the employee tip pool illegally, threatened employees with retaliation and adverse immigration consequences for cooperating with the department, and firing one worker who they believed had complained to the department."

The DOL recovered $70,000 in back wages, plus $70,000 in liquidated damages for the harm caused to employees.

“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,” Mr. Pilotin said.

The Judge ordered the defendants to be “permanently forbidden from FLSA violations,” meaning Taqueria Garibaldi cannot “take any action to stop employees from asserting their rights, interfere with any department investigation, or terminate, threaten or discriminate against any employee perceived to have spoken with investigators.”

Owners and operators of Che Garibaldi, Inc., include Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo and Alejandro Rodriguez. Judge William B. Shubb from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that over and above the $140,00 the defendants must pay civil penalty fines of $5,000 "due to the willful nature of their violations."