IT behemoth Wipro has fired 300 staffers after finding out they were moonlighting for its rivals, its chairman, Rishad Premji, said at an event on Wednesday.
The news came just a week after rival Infosys warned its employees they could face disciplinary action and even lose their jobs if they indulged in the practice of working on a second job, or multiple other assignments during or outside normal business hours, typically secretly.
Premji had tweeted his disapproval of the practice last month and said it was a form of cheating, sparking an intense debate in the Indian IT industry.
“The reality is there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors. We have actually discovered 300 people in the last few months who are doing exactly that,” Premji said at an event hosted by the All India Management Association on Wednesday.
Moonlighting is “a complete violation of integrity in its deepest form”, Premji said, urging employees to be more transparent with employers.
“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,” Premji said.
A Wipro spokeswoman confirmed to DH that “certain employees found to be operating in circumstances that are in direct conflict with Wipro’s interests have been terminated”.
The pandemic gave many people a chance to work from anywhere and serve more than one boss without getting caught. Moonlighting became so common that some firms even hired investigators to snoop on their workers.
HR experts have urged bosses to accept moonlighting was here to stay and advised companies to come up with conditions that allowed it in a bid to encourage employees to disclose details of their side gigs. However, IT firms are worried if moonlighting could create legal and reputational risks, lead to decreased productivity and cause breaches in client confidentiality.