IT services division Wipro fires 300 employees moonlighting for competitors
- ByStartupStory | September 22, 2022
A top executive spoke out on Wednesday about a practice that has gained traction around the world as businesses adopt work-from-home norms and revealed that the multinational provider of telecommunications services Wipro has fired 300 employees in recent months who were discovered to be moonlighting for rivals.
The chairman of Wipro, which has more than 250,000 workers across more than 50 countries, Rishad Premji, stated at a conference on Wednesday that the company views moonlighting for rival companies as an “act of integrity breach.”
“As part of transparency, individuals can have candid and open conversations around playing in a band or working on a project over the weekend. That is an open conversation that the organisation and the individual can make a concerted choice about, on whether that works for them or doesn’t,” he said.
But, “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. That is what I meant…so I do stand by what I said…I do think it is a violation of integrity if you are moonlighting in that shape and form.”
A rising number of white-collar workers, from the banking to the tech sectors, have subtly taken up a second or even third job as a safety net against layoff fears or to benefit from lower accountability when working from home. Moonlighting is being embraced by certain startups as a benefit. Last month, Swiggy, the most valuable food delivery startup in India, informed its staff that, with internal approval, they might accept a second job for pro bono or financial reasons.
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