Gov’t permits more restaurants to employ foreign workers as kitchen assistants

Chinese, Japanese and Western restaurants will be allowed to employ immigrant workers as kitchen assistants, officials said Friday, a move that could help address workforce shortages in the restaurant industry. Under the updated work permit policy, restaurants servicing Chinese, Japanese, Western or other foreign cuisine will be permitted to employ immigrant workers from countries like China, Southeast Asia or Central Asian nations, the officials said. Immigrant workers can only work in the kitchen as assistants, while roles as servers are prohibited, the labor ministry said. Bakeries, cafes or restaurants serving pizza, hamburgers, fried chicken and gimbap, or seaweed rice rolls, are not included in the updates, because, according to the ministry, they have relatively less demand for kitchen assistants. Source: Yonhap News Agency