In an unexpected move, Indian IT firm Wipro Ltd has fired 300 employees after finding them moonlighting with one of its competitors at the same time, said Rishad Premji, chairman of the company, on 21st September.
Premji asserted that he stands by his recent view on moonlighting being cheating and a complete violation of integrity "in its deepest form."
"The reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors, and we have actually discovered 300 employees in the past few months who are doing exactly that," said Premji while speaking at AIMA's (All India Management Association) convention.
The employment of these workers had been terminated for an "act of integrity violation."
Premji added, "There is no space for someone to work for Wipro and competitor XYZ, and they would feel exactly the same way if they were to discover the same situation."
"This is an open conversation that the enterprise and the individual can make a concerted choice about, on whether that works for them or doesn't."
Last week, Infosys, in a message to its employees, said, "No two-timing - no moonlighting!" In a mail titled "no double lives," the company clarified that "dual employment or moonlighting is not permitted as per employee code of conduct."
"Any violation of these clauses will lead to disciplinary action, which could even lead to termination of employment," the mail added.
Moonlighting is not a new phenomenon but became a topic of discussion in the IT industry last year when an employee was found working for seven companies parallelly in Noida. The incident was caught by one of the company's HR managers.
The remote work model after the pandemic has increased moonlighting as employees get time and comfort from their homes to do other jobs as a passion or for some extra bucks.
