The owners of a Northern California taqueria chain will pay $140,000 in back wages and damages after federal investigators found they used a fake priest to elicit “confessions” of wrongdoing from their employees, the Labor Department announced this month.
Labor officials began looking into allegations that employees weren’t being paid overtime wages at the Sacramento-area chain Taqueria Garibaldi in May 2021. As investigators contacted employees, they learned that a man who purported to be a priest had been introduced by the owner
“to get the sins out” of the restaurant workers, one former employee said in an affidavit filed in the case.began the meetings with a prayer, Labor Department investigator Raquel Alfaro testified last year. He then asked the employees whether they were loyal to owner Eduardo Hernandez and whether they had ever stolen from him.
eight hours each day, five days a week, according to court filings. Hernandez also asked the employee to manipulate timecards that suggested otherwise, filings stated. In reality, the employee said, they regularly worked more than 40 hours a week and had only one day off, according to a declaration the Labor Department filed in the case.
Restaurant management also threatened employees with “adverse immigration consequences” and used pooled tips to pay managers, the Labor Department . Another unnamed employee told investigators that manager Alejandro Rodriguez “would not let us sit down and eat,” forcing workers to hide in the refrigerator during meals.The government called the scheme “among the most shameless” acts of employer intimidation and retaliation it has seen.
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