Twelve Cupcakes Founder Fined $65,000 For Underpaying Staffs

Former actress Jaime Teoh who is one of the co-founders of a famous bakery chain Twelve Cupcakes in Singapore was fined a whopping S$65,000 earlier this month for the offence of underpaying seven foreign employees for over three years. 

Another co-founder who is also Jaime Teoh’s ex-husband and former radio deejay Daniel Ong also faced the same charge. The couple started Twelve Cupcakes in 2011 before selling it off in 2017 to Indian tea company Dhunseri Group for S$2.5 million.

Jaime Teoh pleaded guilty to 10 out of 24 charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act for meddling with the foreign employees’ work pass conditions. The workers were a pastry chef, customer service executives and sales executives with full salaries between S$2,000 and S$2,600. However, they were only paid between S$350 and S$1,400 less from September 2013 to November 2016. The company owed the employees a total of S$98,900 in salary arrears. 

This case highlighted the problems being faced by many foreign employees in Singapore. According to the Ministry of Manpower prosecutor, in this case, Maximilian Chew, 

“Many foreign employees, in a bid to land employment, are left with no choice but to agree to salaries dictated by unscrupulous employers. They may be from impoverished backgrounds”.

[Source 1, 2, 3]