An proprietor of a Northern California taqueria was the goal of a federal wage theft investigation in November 2021 when he introduced in a wierd visitor to speak to his staff.

Eduardo Hernandez advised staff at Taqueria Garibaldi in Sacramento that the person, who claimed to be a priest, was there to listen to confession and “help with mental health,” in keeping with an account that one worker gave federal regulators.

But the worker, Maria Parra, discovered her interplay with the person to be extra like an interrogation than a confession. Ms. Parra stated that he advised her he would ask her questions “to get the sins out of me.” But when the questioning started, the person “mostly had work-related questions,” she stated.

“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,” Ms. Parra stated in a sworn declaration.

Raquel Alfaro, a Labor Department investigator, testified that “multiple employees” advised her they took half in confessions with the person and that “they found it odd because the priest was asking questions regarding their loyalty to the employer and to the business.”

Labor Department officers stated this week that they believed the intention was to intimidate the employees and presumably to extract data from them about their interactions with investigators.

Last month, a federal choose ordered Mr. Hernandez and the opposite proprietor of Taqueria Garibaldi, which has three places within the Sacramento space, to pay $140,000 in again pay and damages to 35 staff.

The restaurant did not pay its hourly staff additional time and illegally paid managers with pooled tip cash, the Labor Department stated in a press release on Monday saying the enforcement motion.

Mr. Hernandez and his legal professionals didn’t reply to requests for remark.

As for the person who took confessions from Taqueria Garibaldi’s staff, it was not clear whether or not he was an actual priest. Federal investigators had been unable to establish him, noting that the restaurant staff knew solely that he was Mr. Hernandez’s good friend.

Bryan Visitacion, a spokesman for the Diocese of Sacramento, stated he didn’t know who the person was. “The person in question is not a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento,” he stated in an e mail.

In sworn declarations, staff described a hostile work atmosphere at Taqueria Garibaldi, saying that they had been pressured to work additional hours with out pay, that they had been usually denied breaks and that firings occurred with out warning.

“I saw my co-workers hide in the walk-in refrigerator to hide and take a break to eat,” a employee whose title was redacted in court docket paperwork advised investigators, including that the supervisor “would not let us sit down and eat” and “would pressure you to get up and work.”

The employee stated she was paid for under 40 hours whereas working 50 to 60 hours per week.

The Labor Department discovered that Mr. Hernandez; Hector Manual Martinez Galindo, who owned the restaurant with him; and Alejandro Rodriguez, a supervisor, instructed employees members to mislead investigators by telling them that they didn’t work additional time. The defendants took different measures to hinder the investigation, the division stated, together with destroying payroll information and threatening some staff with deportation in the event that they talked to federal regulators.

Workers are set to obtain as a lot as $14,826 in again pay and damages below the court docket order for unpaid wages from 2018 to 2021, court docket paperwork present.