SINGAPORE: The former principal of a Japanese kindergarten was on Monday (Nov 25) jailed for 20 weeks for lying about teachers’ salaries to get employment passes.
Yasutaka Mori, 66, pleaded guilty to three offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Eight similar charges were also considered for sentencing.
The Japanese national was the director and principal of Konohana Kindergarten, which was located at Ramsgate Road before closing down in March 2023
He was responsible for recruiting teachers and negotiating their salaries.
Mori admitted to making false declarations about the salaries of five foreigners in their employment pass applications.
Through this ruse, he saved about S$290,000 (US$215,000) in salaries owed to the three employees in his proceeded charges.
To receive an employment pass, a worker must earn at least the qualifying salary, which is currently S$5,000 a month. The qualifying salary was S$3,300 in January 2014.
Between 2015 and 2021, Mori declared salaries ranging from S$4,500 to S$9,909 for five employees in order to obtain employment passes for them.
However, he never intended to pay the full salary amounts, as the employees had agreed to return a portion every month.
Mori would deposit the declared salary amounts into the bank accounts of the employees, who would then withdraw a portion in cash and give it back to him.
Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutor Amos Tan told the court that employees paid back a portion ranging from about 16 per cent to 48 per cent of their declared salaries each month.
MOM started investigating Mori in January 2022 after receiving information about possible breaches of employment laws.
He has made partial restitution of about S$194,000 to the employees.
Mr Tan, who sought 25 to 29 weeks’ imprisonment, said Mori tried to create a paper trail to conceal his offences by depositing the declared salaries before being repaid in cash.
He said the offences undermined MOM’s work pass framework, which is meant to ensure an equal playing field in the labour market.
Such actions disadvantage employers who play by the rules, he said, noting that Konohana Kindergarten was not the only Japanese kindergarten in Singapore.
Defence lawyer Ng Pei Qi told the court that during employment negotiations in Japan, Mori informed the teachers that he would be declaring a higher salary than they would actually receive.
He did this to ensure transparency as he did not want to exploit the teachers under his care, she said.
She said that unlike other cases, Mori’s employees were not already in Singapore and “trapped” here when they became aware of the actual payment terms.
Their working conditions were good and they received annual increments, she added.
But District Judge Ronald Gwee said that the teachers were in a weaker economic position compared to Mori, and might have had no choice but to accept his payment terms in order to get the job.
Ms Ng also disputed that Mori intended to create a paper trail. She said the teachers decided by themselves to pay him back in cash rather than through bank transfer, and that this method was not chosen at his instruction.
Asking for eight to 12 weeks’ imprisonment, the lawyer also said that Mori had no other source of income after the kindergarten closed in 2023, and hence was unable to make full restitution.
She said that the protracted proceedings had distressed him and that his wife had also suffered a mental breakdown after finding out that he was receiving additional charges, which were tendered in May.
Prosecutor Mr Tan responded that it was difficult to accept the defence’s position that the teachers were “willing victims”, given the power dynamics between employer and employee.
He said that the employer was inherently in a higher position of power than the employee, as the employer determines the salary and how it is paid.
Judge Gwee noted that Mori’s offences involved deception on the controller of work passes and MOM, and were very hard to detect.
In this case, if not for the information that MOM received about possible breaches, Mori might not have been brought to task, he said.
The judge added that a deterrent message had to be sent by the court, or other like-minded potential offenders would attempt to get away with the same actions.
The punishment for making a false declaration to the controller of work passes is up to two years in jail, a fine of up to S$20,000 or both.
