California Restaurant Group Had Fake Priest Spy on Employees, Department of Labor Says

A California restaurant group has been ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages to 35 employees and $5,000 in civil penalties after the Department of Labor says they used a fake priest to spy on employees in order to get confessions of workplace “sins” by staff.

The company, Che Garibaldi Inc, which runs Taqueria Garibaldi's two locations in Sacramento and Roseville, agreed to a consent judgment in May, Law and Crime reported.  

They and owners and operators Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo, and Alejandro Rodriguez were ordered to pay the damages and penalties, the Department of Labor said.

"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," Marc Pilotin, regional solicitor of labor, said a press release by Department of Labor Monday.

The Department of Labor says an employee testified that the restaurant offered staff a “priest” to listen to confessions during work hours.

The "priest" urged staff to “get the sins out,” the witness said, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The priest asked if they had stolen from the company, been late for work, did anything to hurt the company, or if they had bad intentions toward the organization, Law and Crime reported.

"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 added.

The Labor Department also said that they discovered that Taqueria Garibaldi denied employees overtime pay, illegally paid managers from the employee tip pool, threatened employees with retaliation and immigration problems, and fired a person who they thought complained to the department.

“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,” Pilotin said.

The division’s Sacramento District Office conducted the investigation. The department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in San Francisco litigated the case.

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