Twelve Cupcakes: Jaime Teo guilty of underpaying staff and slapped with S$65,000 fine

Twelve Cupcakes, a Singapore-based bakery chain that sells cupcakes, has been going through legal battles after it was accused of underpaying its foreign staff members.

On Monday, March 9, the company’s co-founder Jaime Teo was fined by the court and ordered to pay S$65,000. She was accused of not paying Twelve Cupcakes workers according to what had been negotiated during the hiring process.

The guilty verdict for the offenses

Teo has been operating Twelve Cupcakes with her former husband Daniel Ong, and District Judge Adam Nakhoda admitted that the wrongdoings against the staff were hard to detect even if it went on for quite some time. But still, the court was able to verify that the executives were truly liable for the offenses.

"The fact that the accused herself was unable to detect the offenses is not in itself mitigating," the judge said. "She ought to have paid more attention to the HR (human resources) aspect of the business."

Judge Nakhoda was referring to the fact that Teo claimed she was not aware that the Twelve Cupcake workers were being underpaid. Channel News Asia reported that Teo is also a local celebrity and former beauty queen who won the Miss Universe Singapore title before.

The judge reasoned that she is still guilty and liable because she allowed the company to underpay seven foreign workers in the bakeshop. They were said to have worked in the bakery for more than three years when Teo was still a director.

It was further explained by the judge that even if some of the workers accepted an agreement for lower salaries to work in Singapore, it is still not right for a company to pay them less. They still must follow the country’s minimum salary rates.

"The fact that employees do not complain that they are being paid less does not absolve the companies," Nakhoda said. Moreover, he noted that Teo did not compensate the workers for what was owed to them even after the issue had been brought up, and this was one of the reasons she was fined.

Teo’s other charges

As per The Straits Times, Teo was also sentenced last month for a related case. Twelve Cupcakes were charged for 14 other offenses, and the former beauty queen pleaded guilty to 10 of them for violations of the country’s Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

Now, aside from the fine, Teo must also return the $98,900 salary that they owe from the workers involved. Meanwhile, the staff members who were underpaid and should be compensated include two sales executives, a pastry chef, and four customer service executives.