Infosys, an IT service firm based in Bengaluru has cautioned its employees in a mail that it will not allow moonlighting in any manner. Infosys has further warned the employees that the violation of the Code of Conduct could lead to an instant termination of their employment with Infosys.
Infosys sent an email to all its employees, titled “No Double Lives” and mentioned “As per the employee handbook and the code of conduct, dual employment is not permitted in Infosys. In case someone tries to deliberately violate any clause, disciplinary action would be taken which might even lead to the termination of employment.” The company further mentioned in the mail that working on a second job during the normal job hours would be considered an offense and the same has been mentioned in the offer letter of Infosys.
The concept of moonlighting came under the spotlight after Swiggy allowed its employees to work on external projects, earning more money. This trend of working on a second project alongside the existing job has created a sense of fear and insecurity in IT companies and has become a huge concern. They fear that handling multiple projects at the same time would affect the productivity of their employees.
The chairman of Wipro, Rishad Premji, is of the same opinion, he went ahead and labelled moonlighting as cheating. He took to his official Twitter account and wrote “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating—plain and simple.”
While the entire IT industry is dealing with the fears of moonlighting, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), a non-profit group, has come out in support of employees who’re indulged in moonlighting. In a media interaction, NITES mentioned “The employment contract of Infosys can hold a person liable for only 9 hours but what the employees choose to do post their work shift is their own prerogative.” NITES further added “An act of dropping such emails to the employees shall be considered illegal and unethical because Article 21 of the Indian constitution has provided ‘Right to livelihood’ to every citizen of the country.”