A northern California taqueria chain hired someone to pretend to be a priest who led workers in a service where they were encouraged to pledge their loyalty to the owner and then encouraged to confess “sins” they committed against the restaurant, the Washington Post reports. The penance: a $140,000 fine, including paying unpaid overtime wages to workers.
According to investigators who were looking into allegations of wage theft by the company, workers said the owner brought in a man who was introduced as a priest. The man would open sessions with a prayer, and then ask employees to participate in confession, during which the man would ask questions about whether the employee stole from the company or badmouthed management.
“As soon as the confession started, I found the conversation to be strange and unlike normal confessions, where I would tell a priest about the sins I wanted to confess,” former employee Maria Parra said in her sworn declaration. “The priest mostly had work-related questions, which I thought was strange.”