‘Unacceptable’: After Wipro & Infosys, this IT firm fired employees for moonlighting
Moonlighting is the practice of taking up secondary jobs after work hours without informing or taking consent of the current employer. The term shot into prominence in the West where employees started looking for secondary jobs after work hours to earn extra income.
Information technology firm Happiest Minds Technologies said it has fired few employees who were found moonlighting, or involved in dual jobs after work hours. The company said moonlighting is unacceptable as it amounts to violation of contract, PTI reported.
Happiest Mind Technologies has started getting employees back to office as the scope for practices like moonlighting is minimal which can be identified and eliminated earlier. (Reuters File Photo)
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The company's executive vice chairman Joseph Anantharaju said the actions had been taken against employees who were later terminated because the company wanted to send a message on moonlighting. He said that the employees cannot be moonlighting. If they wish to teach in a school over the weekend then that's different, he added.
Anantharaju said the company has started getting employees back to office as the scope for practices like moonlighting is minimal which can be identified and eliminated earlier.
Moonlighting is the practice of taking up secondary jobs after work hours without informing or taking consent of the current employer. The term shot into prominence in the West where employees started looking for secondary jobs after work hours to earn extra income. As the term suggests, ‘moonlighting’ is basically the work done in the evening or through the night.
In India, the ‘moonlighting’ debate has become a raging issue as the IT sector has been divided over it. Wipro chairman Rishad Premji has been vocal against the practice, calling it cheating. His company even fired 300 employees after they were found engaging in dual jobs.
Infosys, which had said it ‘let go’ of employees found working for two companies, recently allowed its staffers to take up gig jobs on the side but after prior approval from the managers. The company made it clear that the gig assignments are to be taken up after work hours and in the employees' personal time.
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HCL Technologies had also said it does not approve of dual employment although it added that the issue is not a major one in its company. Tata Consultancy Services dubbed moonlighting against its core values.
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HCL Technologies had also said it does not approve of dual employment although it added that the issue is not a major one in its company. Tata Consultancy Services dubbed moonlighting against its core values.
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