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Local bakery chain Twelve Cupcakes co-founder Jaime Teo allowed for the underpaying of seven of the bakery's foreign employees between 2013 and 2016.

On Tuesday (Mar. 9), Teo was fined S$65,000 for underpaying the employees by almost S$100,000 over the course of those three years, during the time she was the company's director, CNA reported.

Paid foreign employees less than owed

Teo had founded Twelve Cupcakes in 2011 together with her then-husband, former radio DJ Daniel Ong.

According to CNA, the court heard that Teo was one of the main decision-makers in the company.

She controlled the company's expenses and was in charge of the employees' salaries.

In 2012, Teo and Ong decided together to hire foreign employees to expand their business, hiring foreigners for the position of a pastry chef, sales executives, and customer service executives.

They were meant to pay the workers between S$2,000 and S$2,600, but instead, paid the workers between S$350 and S$1,400 less between September 2013 and November 2016.

Until today, the S$98,900 owed to the foreign employees from when Ong and Teo owned Twelve Cupcakes have still not been paid, The Straits Times reported.

No restitution has been made to the workers

Teo's defence lawyers argued that Teo was not involved in discussions about employment details, CNA reported, and that there was a third-party employment agency hired by the HR director.

They said that while Teo did agree on the salary ranges, she did not have "any sort of substantial contact with the third-party agency".

ST also reported that the defence lawyers argued that Teo did not know that there were differences between the salary amounts declared in the employment contracts and the actual amounts that the workers received.

In court in February 2021, Teo pleaded guilty to 10 charges of failing to prevent Twelve Cupcakes from underpaying the workers, and admitted that she had been neglectful, wrote ST.

For contravening work pass conditions, Teo could have faced up to one years' jail, a fine of up to S$10,000, or both, per charge.

Ong's case is pending.

Twelve Cupcakes also fined S$119,500

A few months after Ong and Teo got divorced in 2016, the two sold the company to India-based tea company Dhunseri Group, according to CNA.

In December 2020, Dhunseri Group pleaded guilty to 15 charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, and was fined S$119,500 in January 2021 for underpaying seven foreign staff S$114,000 from December 2016 to November 2018.

Twelve Cupcakes' lawyer said that the practice of paying its staff less than what was agreed on paper was implemented by the previous owners, Ong and Teo.

CNA reported that that the seven foreign staff, which included sales executives, customer service executives, and a pastry chef, were promised salaries between S$2,200 and S$2,600.

Twelve Cupcakes credited the agreed-upon salaries into the employees' bank accounts, but then asked them to return a portion in cash.

The staff were paid between S$200 and S$1,200 less than what was agreed upon.

The company has since repaid the staff the salary owed to them between 2016 and 2018.

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Top photos via Jaime Teo's Facebook and Instagram.