It was unholy behavior.

The owners of a California taqueria chain have been ordered to pay $70,000 in damages to employees who met with a “person identified as a priest” to confess workplace sins.

Thirty-five employees of Taqueria Garibaldi, which has locations in Sacramento and Roseville, were awarded the amount following an investigation by the US Department of Labor.

“An employee told the court the ‘priest’ urged workers to ‘get the sins out’ and asked them if they had stolen from the employer, been late for work, had done anything to harm their employer, or if they had bad intentions toward their employer,” a press release from the Department declared.

They added that the intimidating stunt was “among the most shameless” they had ever seen.

The identity of the so-called priest has not been disclosed.

Maria Parra, an employee of Taqueria Garibaldi, was one of the workers who fell victim to the scam.

“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,” Parra told a federal court in a sworn declaration.

The employee added that the “priest” was only interested in hearing about sins committed on the job.

The Department of Labor only uncovered the spiritual scam after an investigation into unpaid wages.

They subsequently discovered that the owners denied employees overtime pay for hours over 40 in a workweek, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In addition to the $70,000 in damages, Taqueria Garibaldi is now also required to pay $70,000 in back pay to the employees.

The owners will additionally have to fork out $5,000 in civil money penalties to the Department of Labor “due to the willful nature of their violations.”

Additionally, the Department of Labor says the owners “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.”

The Post had contacted one of the listed owners of Taqueria Garibaldi for comment.

“This employer’s despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation and prevent the recovery of unpaid wages,” the Department’s Solicitors said in a statement.