Moonlighting debate: Missing the forest for the trees
To fire or not to fire? The framing of the moonlighting debate, affecting IT employees with multiple jobs, may be the biggest problem when one factors in the larger issue of inequality, exacerbated by neo-liberal economic policies and the COVID-19 crisis.
Published on: 4 October 2022, 07:53 am
To fire or not to fire? The framing of the moonlighting debate, affecting IT employees with multiple jobs, may be the biggest problem when one factors in the larger issue of inequality, exacerbated by neo-liberal economic policies and the COVID-19 crisis.
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"WHEN inequality of conditions is the common law of society, the most marked inequalities do not strike the eye; when everything is nearly on the same level, the slightest are marked enough to hurt it."
– French political scientist, historian and politician Alexis de Tocqueville, 'Democracy in America'
What is moonlighting?
This month, Information Technology ('IT') giant Wipro fired 300 employees after discovering that they work for other companies.
The issue gained prominence as the lockdown-induced 'work-from-home' model allowed employees to take up other projects and second jobs.
Such a move by employees has been called out as moonlighting by other major tech firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and IBM. For instance, Infosys prohibits second jobs as violative of employment agreements that restrict dual employment, and call for disciplinary action and dismissal. IBM has called it unethical.