Japan Foods subsidiary barred from work pass applications till May 2024

JAPAN Foods Holding ’s subsidiary, Japan Foods Enterprises (JFE), is suspended from applying for work passes till May 31, 2024 but allowed to renew existing ones.

The restriction, the Catalist-listed restaurant operator said in a bourse filing on Thursday (Jun 22), is not expected to have any material financial impact on the group.

JFE was found by the Ministry of Manpower to have breached the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and slapped with a penalty of S$75,000.

The infringements, said Japan Foods in an earlier bourse filing, were related to erroneous Central Provident Fund contributions which inflated JFE’s foreign employee entitlement. The incidents had stemmed from administrative oversight.

The penalty is not expected to have any material impact on the group’s financial results for the current financial year ending March 2024, Japan Foods said.

Japan Foods shares closed at S$0.425, up 3.7 per cent, on Thursday before this announcement was made.