BENGALURU: Wipro chairman Rishad Premji on Wednesday said the firm had found 300 employees working for one of its competitors and that the services of these employees have been terminated. Wipro in a statement confirmed the termination.
“Certain employees, found to be operating in circumstances that are in direct conflict with Wipro’s interests, have been terminated,” the IT firm said.
"No two-timing -- no moonlighting!" Infosys, India's second-largest IT services company, had said in a strong and firm message to employees last week.
Speaking at the All India Management Association’s National Management Convention, Premji said the reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of its competitors.
Moonlighting is having a second job secretively. As part of transparency, individuals can have candid and open conversations about playing in a band or working on a project over the weekend, the agency has quoted Premji.
The Wipro chairman was the first person to talk about moonlighting in the tech industry. He has called moonlighting in the tech industry as ‘cheating -- plain and simple’.
Infosys recently sent an email to its employees saying dual employment is not permitted and violation of this could lead to termination of the employment.
Recently at an event held in Bengaluru, former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai said, “Employment is a contract between two people, and the terms of the contract will dominate....If you do something else during free time, then you should make sure that you don’t use employers’ assets, IP and you don’t do which is confidential.”
He said don’t do work during employers’ time, which is illegal, unethical and cheating. He added that moonlighting has to be redefined and looked at differently. Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani recently tweeted, “My thoughts on the trending ‘M word’... It’s necessary to keep changing with the times, and as always, I welcome disruption in the ways we work.” Meanwhile, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) is gearing up for a legal battle against illegal clauses mentioned in the offer letter of IT sector employees.