Something was baking in the air all of Monday, but nothing good.
On Nov. 25, socio-political commentary site The Real Singapore (TRS) published a letter from someone named Vettel, who related the accounts of foreigners working with local bake shop Twelve Cupcakes.
In the letter, Vettel revealed at least three employees under the cupcake chain owned by former local DJ Daniel Ong and his wife Jamie Teo claim they’re working 12 hours a day, six days a week, without overtime pay. They also divulged that in many instances, they had had to work the shift alone and were prevented from taking toilet breaks. The letter also talked about salaries — bakers at Twelve Cupcakes were apparently being paid less than SGD1,000, a supposedly measly sum for the long hours they were working and for a chain that was well expanding into Southeast Asia.
According to Ong’s email reply, TRS had apparently contacted Ong for comment at about 9am that morning, informing him that they would publish the letter at night whether or not he responded, but the letter was published about two hours later. The email also refuted all claims made in Vettel’s letter.
Later, on the same day (these people are fast, we tell ya!), an Estrada claiming to be one of Twelve Cupcakes’ outlet managers wrote a response to Ong’s email via TRS. The general consensus from those who have read the response is that Estrada is accusing Ong of lying and making things seem peachier than they are.
Finally, at about midnight on Nov. 26, Ong wrote two long statuses on his Facebook page, in an attempt to make public his company’s operational ethics and to call TRS out for its inaccuracies and obsession with sensationalism.
This isn’t the first time Twelve Cupcakes has been in the media for anything other than their baked goods. Last year, Daniel Ong was involved in a high-profile spat with Singapore Press Holdings, who’d accused the celebrity of reproducing their articles without permission or paying licensing fees.
This is also not the first time cupcakes have created an uproar in Singapore this year. Earlier, we reported how crazy popular halal cupcakery Fluff Bakery have had to put up with scathing remarks on their social media platforms for not being able to meet demand at their brick and mortar store.
