Wipro now says it is fine with employees doing side jobs but not for competitors

Seems like Wipro is still not entirely clear with its stand on moonlighting. Earlier, Wipro head Rishad Premji expressed his strong disapproval of employees taking secondary jobs. The Indian IT giant also fired 300 of its employees for 'moonlighting' - a word used for workers who have secretly taken a second job. It appears that Wirpo Chief executive Thierry Delaporte is not entirely against the practice of taking a second job. He favoured the idea of taking "side jobs", but not with the competitors.

As reported by news agency PTI, Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte said that working with rival firms is a "question of ethics". The report citing the senior notes, "Our contracts stipulate not taking up a side job with a competitor. It is not a question of legal (propriety); it is a question of ethics". He added, "I am not talking about things illegal. I am not talking about side jobs. I am really talking about being in an obvious situation of conflict of interest. I think that our employees understand that."

Considering other IT companies like Tech Mahindra who don't have a problem with employees taking up second work after office timings, Delaporte added "If others have no problem, we respect that. But also we are not doing anything new or different."

Earlier, amid all the debate around moonlighting in the IT sector, CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra gave his nod to employees taking up secondary work. He said that Tech Mahindra might include moonlighting into company policies, but employees should be open about it.

On the contrary, Wipro, Infosys, IBM and other Indian IT firms showed their strong disapproval of the subject. Wipro also sacked 300 of its employees in September after catching them working in secondary jobs. While it is still unclear how Wipro caught hold of its employees engaged in moonlighting, a theory went viral on Twitter stating that Wipro found out about moonlighters after getting access to their PF accounts.