According to Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji, 300 of its employees were let go after the company discovered they were concurrently employed by a rival.
The Wipro Chairman insisted that he still stands by his recent assertion that moonlighting constitutes a grave breach of integrity.
Premji said at the AIMA’s (All India Management Association) National Management Convention, “The reality is that there are people working for Wipro today who are also working directly for one of our competitors, and we have actually uncovered 300 people who are doing just that.”
When asked about the actions taken against individuals who were discovered to be working simultaneously for the company and for rivals, Premji said that their employment had been terminated for a “act of integrity violation.”
Moonlighting is the term for working a second job covertly. “He said that as part of transparency, people can talk openly and honestly about things like being in a band or “working on a project over the weekend.”
The organisation and the individual can jointly decide whether or not it works for them, he added, adding that it is an open discussion.
Additionally, Premji said, “There is no room for someone to work for Wipro and competitor XYZ and they would feel precisely the same way if they were to discover the same circumstance.”
That’s what I wanted to say, therefore I stand by what I said. I do believe that moonlighting in any way is dishonest, he continued.
Anand Mahindra CP Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra, recently tweeted that it is important to adapt to the times and added, “I welcome disruption in the methods we work.”
Infosys made it plain in an internal communication headlined “no double lives” that “dual employment is not permitted as per…Employee Handbook and Code of Conduct,” while announcing to staff last week that “No two timing – no moonlighting!”
The email from Infosys had stated that “Any breach of these provisions would result in disciplinary action, which may possibly result in termination of employment.”
