Amid moonlighting debate, Infosys allows gig work for employees; prior permission required

After Infosys CEO Salil Parekh's earlier stand to not allow dual employment, the company on Thursday, October 20 changed its stance and stated that employees can take up gig job opportunities outside the company with prior consent of the Human Resource Manager. 

The IT bellwether in an email to the employees said, "Any employee, who wishes to take up gig work, may do so, with the prior consent of their manager and BP-HR, and in their personal time, for establishments that do not compete with Infosys or Infosys' clients." The company's move comes amid heated debate over Moonlighting - a concept of taking up a second job while on the role of a particular company.

From opposing dual employment to supporting gig jobs   

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh recently opposed the idea of Moonlighting, which could potentially lead to employees working in conflict with the company's work. He further added that Infosys allowed employees to do gig work for internal projects. The latest email of Infosys to its employees without mentioning the term 'moonlighting' laid down the guiding principles, one of which is to take up gig work after making sure the assignments are not against the interest of the company. The company's rules also stressed that any gig work must not affect the employees' ability to work effectively for internal projects. 

In addition, as per the Infosys employment contract, ''employees may not work in areas when there is a potential conflict of interest or by accepting dual employment," the email mentioned. Additionally it was also stated that Infosys values learnability and thus totally backs its employees to take up additional projects. 

Moonlighting debate  

The whole debate over Moonlighting began with Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji's August 20 Tweet in which he said, "There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple." Following him, many tech honchos voiced their views against moonlighting. 

The data of the company is sacrosanct and thus there is no place for moonlighting, said RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka. "Moonlighting: Wipro vs Swiggy - they just can’t be compared. Wipro deals with Fortune 500 clients for whom data secrecy is sacrosanct.  If the customer finds even a remote chance of data compromise, it will not be tolerated," he said.

Image: PTI