Many of us might do moonlighting sooner or later or may plan to do it. But let me tell you moonlighting could be legal and illegal both depending on the agreement between employee and employer. Moonlighting is also called as dual employment in India.
Is moonlighting legal in India?
Moonlighting is illegal legal both. If employers allowed to do any work after employee office hours, it is legal. Many companies do not allow moonlighting as their confidential data may misuse if an employee does similar jobs with another company in India. This is the reason dual employment is not allowed with all major companies.
Some people are already doing moonlighting, but they are not aware of the meaning of moonlighting in India.
Generally, people do not check their appointment letters properly before moonlighting.
This is very general in the IT and BPO industry. Like, such as Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, etc. Most of the person doing moonlighting after office hours.
I will explain to you today in this article, What is moonlighting? and what happened if you do moonlighting? Let's get started.
What is moonlighting in India?
Generally, Doing two jobs without company knowledge is called moonlighting in India. If you are appointed in any company for a full-time job and doing extra earnings by joining another company is referred to as moonlighting.
Doing an extra job at night or on the weekend is the way to do moonlighting, which is prohibited in some companies or may not in India. It depends on the employer policy written in the appointment letter.
If someone joined in a company and does another job in their free time is also called dual employment.
Major IT companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, etc have been observed moonlighting by their employees. some of the major IT companies taking this matter up for strict action.
What happened if you do moonlighting?
Whenever you joined any full-time job with a company in India, it is clearly mentioned in your appointment letter that dual employment is not allowed during the time you are associated with the company.
If the employer finds any employee doing moonlighting, they may take legal action against it. Depending upon the severity of moonlighting.
Some companies may terminate you immediately or may close this with a final warning of moonlighting.
Is moonlighting ethical in India?
In the private sector, some companies call it ethical and few of them do not have any obligation to moonlighting.
In India, people get a very less salary in their full-time job, which is not enough for financial freedom. Hence, People doing moonlighting for extra income during the off hours or on the weekend.
Mr. CP Gurnani, the MD of Tech Mahindra said, Moonlighting is ok if employees do it after full-time jobs. He will be happy if employee share moonlighting activities with the company
Mr. Rashid Premji, Wipro Chairman has stated moonlighting is cheating on the employer. Mr. Mohandas Pai, however not agreed with his statement that moonlighting is cheating. He said that my employer pays me for some particular time to do the task, and after my shift, I can do anything, whatever i want.
Mr. N Ganapathy Subramaniam, the CEO of TCS says that moonlighting is an ethical issue. It is good for the short term but not good for a long-term career.
Apart from these IT companies, Swiggy has mentioned that Moonlighting is good if the employee completes their assigned task, any employee can go ahead with moonlighting in their free time.