Wipro Fires 300 Employees For Moonlighting The Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said that this is a complete violation of integrity in its deepest form
By Teena Jose
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Wipro has fired 300 employees who found to be working for one of its competitors while still being on the Wipro payroll. It is also happened when Wipro chairman Rishad Premji was publicly vocal about his disagreements with moonlighting, where he called the policy as unethical and it's cheating.
"The reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors and we have actually discovered 300 people in the last few months who are doing exactly that. This is a complete violation of integrity in its deepest form," said Premji in a statement. The chairman was speaking at the 49th All India Management Association Convention.
Rishad Premji also explained that the definition of moonlighting itself is about having another job secretively. As part of transparency, individuals can have candid and open conversations around, say, playing in a band or working on a project over the weekend. He further clarified, "It is an open conversation that two adults, the organization and the individual can make a choice about whether it works or does not work for them."
While segregating the scenario where employees secretly worked for competitors, Premji said that, "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 violation of integrity if you are moonlighting in that shape and form."
For the past few months, moonlighting is the most discussed terms around the sector. Along with Rishad Premji, Infosys had also shared the viewpoint o moonlighting by warning their employees not to have double lives and dual employment. Later on, IBM India MD Sandip Patel has stated that moonlighting is not ethical.