The popular Tacos El Gordo chain in Chula Vista was found to owe more than $45,000 in unpaid fines for not providing safe working conditions for their employees, according to state officials. This is really unfortunate because we’ve been going to Tacos El Gordo forever! It raises a question, should they been villainized as a terrible employer or are they just another small San Diego business doing the best business they can trying to stay in business and stay profitable? As bad as it looks, it’s way better than an E.coli problem as seen at Chipotle over and over again. Chipotle isn’t even Mexican, it’s fake Mexican and they kill their customers.
At two of the chain’s locations, management failed to inform officials when their workers suffered serious injuries on the job and failed to provide proper health and safety training, according to the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The taco chain was fined for 10 safety violations found at its now-closed 3rd Avenue location in Chula Vista last May, and earned another three penalties at its Palm Avenue location in July.
According to the Department of Industrial Relations, store management cooperated with investigators and took steps to resolve the hazards, but the company never paid its fines. Now that more than 90 days have passed and a court judgement was filed, the fines will incur interest and court fees on top of that total, the DIR’s Frank Polizzi explained.
Ricardo Cervantes said the restaurant was in need of skilled “taqueros” — the cooks that make the tacos.
“We work with very sharp knives in a very quick pace and it’s very different from a taco shop,” Cervantes explained. “The [people] that have been applying don’t have the experience. The ones that come they say, ‘You know, I’m not up for this.’”
Be First to Comment