A restaurant must pay workers $140,000 after allegedly hiring a fake priest to extract confessions of workers’ ‘sins’
New York –
A restaurant in California has been ordered to pay $140,000 in again wages and damages to workers after it employed a priest to extract staff’ confessions, in what federal investigators are calling “the most shameless” acts of corruption an employer has taken towards its employees.
The U.S. Department of Labor stated an worker testified that proprietor Che Garibaldi, who operates two areas of Taqueria Garibaldi in northern California, employed a pretend priest to listen to confessions throughout work hours and “get the sins out,” together with asking them if they’d been late for work, stolen cash from the restaurant or had “bad intentions” towards their employer.
“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,” stated Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin within the launch.
The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento confirmed that they discovered “no evidence of any connection” between the pretend priest and their diocese. “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 informed the Catholic News Agency final week.
Garibaldi and three different restaurant house owners and operators had been ordered to pay $140,000 in again wages and damages to 35 workers. The restaurant can even should pay $5,000 in civil penalties.
Taqueria Garibaldi didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Investigators additionally discovered that the restaurant denied workers additional time pay, managers had been paid bonuses from the worker tip pool and a few workers confronted “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 stated.
