In a bizarre incident, the owner of a restaurant chain in California, USA hired a fake priest to take confessions from workers, with the ‘father’ urging them to “get the sins out”, according to the US Department of Labor.
Che Garibaldi, the restaurant owner, operates two Taqueria Garibaldi restaurants in Sacramento and one in Roseville. He reportedly hired the phoney priest who asked workers if they harboured bad intentions towards their employer or if they had done anything to harm the company.
The Department of Labor was as flabbergasted as anyone. In the official report, the department said its federal workers had seen all kinds of antics from corrupt employers over the years, but the trick pulled by Garibaldi was perhaps the “most shameless”.
One of the employees revealed the shoddy practices used by Garibaldi to the Department of Labor. The employee added that the company paid managers from the employee tip pool illegally, threatened employees with retaliation and adverse immigration consequences for cooperating with the department, and fired one worker who they believed had complained to the department.
“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 the Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin in a release.
Maria Parra, a server at the restaurant testified in court that her conversation with the bogus priest was unlike normal confessions. Instead of confessing what she wanted, the priest told her that he would ask questions to get the ‘sins out’.
“He asked if I had ever got pulled over for speeding, if I drank alcohol or if I had stolen anything. 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,” said Parra, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento released a statement confirming the fake priest had no connection to 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 said.
(With inputs from agencies)
