Wipro changes its statement, says moonlighting is fine but don’t work for rivals

In yet another blow on the moonlighting issue, after firing 300 employees who were allegedly caught cheating on Wipro with a rival, the company has softened itself on moonlighting. Wipro’s CEO Thierry Delaporte says that moonlighting is fine, but it’s unethical if their employees work for their competitor.

He said, “Our contracts stipulate not taking up a side job with a competitor. It is not a question of legal (propriety); it is a question of ethics. I am not talking about things illegal. I am not talking about side jobs. I am really talking about being in an obvious situation of conflict of interest. I think that our employees understand that.”

Earlier, amid all the debate around moonlighting in the IT sector, CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra gave approval to employees for taking up secondary work. He said that Tech Mahindra might include moonlighting into company policies, but employees should be open about it.

Due to the practice of working on side-jobs, people were facing financial uncertainty when top IT firms such as Wipro and Infosys were holding back promotions and hikes or introducing pay cuts. Minister of State for IT and electronics, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has called moonlighting a significant phenomena, adding that firms won’t be able to stop employees from embracing it for long.