MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The owner of TACOnganas, a popular Taco truck chain in Memphis, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The investigation stems from allegations of employee mistreatment.
The Regional Director of Public Affairs for the Department of Labor said that the wage and hour division opened up the investigation into Greg Diaz, the chain’s owner and a pastor.
Many people in Memphis know TACOnganas for their street tacos, but one former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, remembers it as the worst professional experience of her life.
“I’ve never seen any job treat their employees the way they were being treated,” the former employee said. “I remember multiple employees suffered from heat exhaustion and some would pass out.”
In a Facebook post from 2021, Diaz said that he was traveling to Mexico to recruit people to work at TACOnganas. The post stated that employees would work 12-hour days with only one day off and pay 13,000 pesos a week, the equivalent of $671 per week, just over $9 per hour, with no overtime.
But, according to the former employee FOX13 spoke with, there was a catch in the contract.
“Eventually, make them sign a contract, signing their life away, that they had to work for him until they paid him off every dollar that was spent to bring them here,” the former employee said.
The purpose of the investigation is to determine if Diaz is complying with labor laws, according to the Department of Labor.
Those laws cover everything from the Fair Labor Standards Act to the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Diaz also owns a newly opened Germantown restaurant, Uncle Goyo’s.
FOX13 reached out to Diaz for a comment on the allegations and investigation but Diaz did not respond before publication of this story.
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