Employees at the Taqueria Garibaldi restaurant in Sacramento, California said they were introduced by the owner to a priest who would “get the sins out” of the workforce, The Washington Post reports.

Meetings with the priest began with a standard prayer, but workers said he then began asking about their loyalty to the restaurant’s owner and if they had ever stolen from him.

One employee said the priest “mostly had work-related questions, which I thought was strange”, and another said he tried to persuade them to stop claiming overtime pay.

The scheme came to light when US labour officials began investigating allegations of unpaid overtime at the business.

A judge has ordered the restaurant’s owners to pay a total of $140,000 in back wages and damages to the 35 employees. They must also pay $5,000 to the U.S. Labor Department.