A ‘priest’ walked into a taqueria. Investigators say it was harassment.

A Northern California taqueria owner was the target of a federal payroll theft investigation in November 2021 when he brought in a strange guest to talk to his employees.

Eduardo Hernandez told workers at Taqueria Garibaldi in Sacramento that the man, who claimed to be a priest, was there to confess and “help with mental health,” according to a report an employee gave to federal regulators.

But the associate, Maria Parra, felt her interaction with the man was more of an interrogation than a confession. Mrs. Parra said he told her he would ask her questions “to get the sins out of me”. But when the interrogation began, the man “mostly had work-related questions,” she said.

“The priest asked if I had stolen something at work, if I was late for work, if I had done anything to harm my employer and if I had any bad intentions with my work,” Ms Parra said in a statement. declaration under oath.

Raquel Alfaro, a labor department investigator, testified that “several employees” told her they participated in confessions with the man and that “they thought it was strange because the priest was asking questions about their loyalty to the employer and to the company.”

Labor Department officials this week said they believed the aim was to intimidate the workers and possibly obtain information from them about their interactions with investigators.

Last month, a federal judge ordered Mr. Hernandez and the other owner of Taqueria Garibaldi, which has three locations in the Sacramento area, to pay $140,000 in back wages and compensation to 35 employees.

The restaurant did not pay its hourly workers and illegally paid managers with bundled tips, the Labor Department said Monday in a statement announcing the enforcement action.

Mr. Hernandez and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

As for the man who took confessions from the workers of Taqueria Garibaldi, it was not clear whether he was a real priest. Federal investigators were unable to identify him, noting that the restaurant employees only knew that he was Mr. Hernandez’s friend.

Bryan Visitacion, a Sacramento diocese spokesman, said he did not know who the man was. “The person in question is not a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento,” he said in an email.

In affidavits, workers described a hostile work environment at Taqueria Garibaldi, saying they were forced to work extra hours without pay, often denied their breaks and fired without warning.

“I saw my co-workers hide in the walk-in refrigerator to hide and take a break to eat,” an employee whose name was redacted in court documents told investigators, adding that the manager “wouldn’t let us sit and food” and “would pressure you to get up and work.”

The employee said she was paid only 40 hours while working 50 to 60 hours a week.

The labor department found that Mr. Hernandez; Hector Manual Martinez Galindo, who co-owned the restaurant with him; and Alejandro Rodriguez, a manager, instructed staff members to lie to investigators by telling them they were not working overtime. The defendants took other measures to obstruct the investigation, the department said, including destroying payrolls and threatening to deport some employees if they spoke to federal regulators.

Workers will receive as much as $14,826 in back wages and damages under the injunction for unpaid wages from 2018 to 2021, court documents show.