SINGAPORE, Jan 12 — Homegrown bakery chain Twelve Cupcakes was fined S$119,500 (RM365,090) today for underpaying eight foreign employees from 2017 to 2019, after its founders had sold the business to an Indian tea company.

The founders — former radio deejay Daniel Ong and his ex-wife actress Jaime Teo — were separately charged last month with underpaying foreign employees from 2012 to 2016.

Some of the workers listed in their charge sheets are the same ones as those in the present case.

Ong and Teo, who divorced in 2016 after nine years of marriage, set up Twelve Cupcakes in 2011 before selling it in 2017 to Indian tea company Dhunseri Group for S$2.5 million.

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Earlier, Dhunseri’s lawyer told the court that Dhunseri had carried on the practice of underpayment from the founders.

Today, District Judge Adam Nakhoda noted that in the present case, he agreed with Ministry of Manpower prosecutors that the offences were difficult to detect, as shown by the “considerable period of time” during which the underpayment occurred.

The judge also agreed that the company made substantial profits and took efforts to disguise their scheme after May 2018.

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The firm underpaid employees between January 2017 and April 2018. But from May 2018 onwards, the employees were paid the correct amounts, then were asked to return some of their pay.

The employees included four customer service executives, two sales executives and a pastry chef.

Nevertheless, District Judge Nakhoda noted that the firm has since paid them all the salaries they are owed, and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The firm admitted last month to 15 counts of contravening rules under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act pertaining to employers of S Pass holders. The S Pass is given by the Manpower Ministry to mid-level, skilled foreign workers and they need to earn at least S$2,500 a month.

One of the customer service executives at Twelve Cupcakes received between S$1,550 and S$2,050 monthly over the 26-month period. She was supposed to be paid S$2,300 before her salary was raised to S$2,600 in November 2017.

Her salary shortfall came up to at least S$11,000.

For each charge of contravening foreign work pass rules, Twelve Cupcakes could have been fined up to S$10,000 or S$20,000. — TODAY