Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Restaurant Chain Under Investigation

A popular Antelope Valley-based Mexican fast-food restaurant chain is under investigation for alleged state labor code violations and for county health and false advertising problems, state and county officials said Wednesday.

State labor officials said they are investigating Taco Tec Inc., a chain that has grown from one to 18 outlets in the past five years, for allegedly failing to have required worker’s compensation coverage for its employees and for not paying proper overtime and making payroll deductions.

Officials in Kern County, meanwhile, have cited the company’s three outlets in Bakersfield in recent months for health code violations and for selling burritos at less than their advertised weights. But those allegations do not involve the company’s outlets outside Kern County.

Granada Hills resident Armando L. Sanchez, who founded the company in 1988 with an original store in Palmdale, said Wednesday that his troubles are the result of financial problems caused by the recession and, in the case of the Kern County allegations, harassment by competitors and county officials.

Richard Stephens, a spokesman for the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, said the state’s investigation began in February when the three Taco Tecs in Bakersfield were cited for not having worker’s compensation insurance and were ordered closed, although the outlets did not close.

By Wednesday, Stephens said the investigation involved all company-owned Taco Tecs, as opposed to franchises.

In Kern County, a Bakersfield Superior Court judge, in response to a civil lawsuit by the district attorney’s office, ordered the local outlets closed until insurance is obtained and ordered the company to stop advertising its products by weight.

As of Wednesday afternoon, however, the Bakersfield outlets remained open, even though Deputy Dist. Atty. C. M. Starr II said he had received no proof of insurance.