Daniel Ong Fined $65K for Failing to Prevent Twelve Cupcakes From Underpaying Its Foreign Workers

Do you remember the Twelve Cupcakes saga in which the company was found to have been underpaying its employees? 

Looks like all that’s sweet and spice isn’t always nice… 

Today (21 May), one of the co-founders has been fined for failing to prevent the company from underpaying its employees.

Here’s what happened. 

Daniel Ong Fined $65K for Failing to Prevent Twelve Cupcakes From Underpaying Its Foreign Workers

On Friday (21 May), co-founder of the confectionery chain Twelve Cupcakes Daniel Ong Ming Yu, 45, was fined S$65,000 for failing to prevent the company from underpaying its foreign workers. 

The former radio DJ pleaded guilty to 10 charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. 

In addition, another 14 similar charges had been considered during sentencing. 

Ong had co-founded Twelve Cupcakes with his wife Jaime Teo Chai-lin, 43, in 2011. 

Teo had faced a fine of S$65,000 in March after pleading guilty to 10 charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act as well. 

In 2012, Ong and Teo had hired foreign workers. Among them, seven of those workers had been underpaid between 2013 and 2016. 

The staff who were underpaid included four customer service executives, two sales executives and a pastry chef. 

The pastry chef was supposed to be paid monthly wages of S$2,300 in mid-2014. However, the chef received only S$1,600 in payment instead and continued to receive this lower sum until mid-2016. 

The promised monthly salaries of the underpaid staff had ranged from S$2,200 to S$2,600, but they received only around S$1,400 to S$2,050. 

Ong and Teo sold Twelve Cupcakes to Kolkata-based Dhunseri Group for S$2.5 million in 2016. 

In January this year, Twelve Cupcakes was fined S$119,500 for underpaying seven foreign employees. 

On 10 December last year, the company was convicted of 15 counts of underpaying employees in 2017 and 2018. 

Ong could have faced imprisonment for up to a year and been fined up to S$10,000 for each charge under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. 

Twelve Cupcakes Had Attempted to Avoid Detection 

According to court documents, the firm had credited the reduced salaries to their employees’ bank accounts at first. 

However, they changed tactics later on by paying the workers their full salary from May 2018 onwards and then instructing employees to return a portion of the money they received to the company in cash. 

According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutor Maximilian Chew, this move was made by the firm in an attempt to hide their offences. 

He also said that the company would have continued with their underpayment of employees if their offences had not been found out.

Featured Image: Instagram (daniel_ong_singapore)