New Delhi:
IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies has said undeclared work is unacceptable because it amounts to violations of labor contracts and that “few” workers engaged in such practices have been laid off in the past 6-12 months.
The company — which recently posted a staggering 33.7 percent year-on-year growth in net profit in the second quarter and a 31.1 percent increase in its total income — employed approximately 4,581 employees as of September 30, 2022.
Happiest Minds claimed that undeclared work is not very common within the company, but did not disclose the exact number of employees against whom action had been taken.
The issue of undeclared or double employment has emerged as a big talking point in the IT industry since Wipro chairman Rishad Premji flagged the issue on Twitter, equating it with “cheating”.
In recent weeks, several companies have addressed the issue to make it clear that they do not condone double employment.
Simply put, moonlight or dual employment refers to employees who take up side jobs to work on more than one job at a time.
Happiest Minds’ Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Anantharaju told PTI, “We’ve been very clear to our people that it’s something we won’t accept….” Moonlighting raises risks and questions about security, as well as employees’ commitment to devoting their time and attention to end customers and delivery results.
When asked if the company had found cases of employees involved in moonlight, Anantharaju said: “We’ve had a few and we immediately terminated them because it’s a message that you want to drive through the company. Even if it’s a couple of hours is somewhere…because there’s no way to really establish that. So we did.”
The action was taken in the past 6-12 months, he informed. “We’re clear, you can’t earn extra. If you want to do some volunteer work in unrelated areas… maybe you want to teach at a school on the weekend, that’s different. But for us, you have to spend all your time on Happiest Minds and training here,” he said.
The practices and cases of undeclared work are “not too widespread” in the company.
“That’s one of the reasons we started getting our people back to work. Because once you’re back in the office, the space for a lot of these things is minimal and can be eliminated and identified a long time ago” , he said.
The company hired about 67 percent of its employees in the last quarter; the plan is to increase the number by January 1, 2023 and have most employees in place by April 1.
On the frequency of days in a week when employees now invade physical workplaces and fill office cubicles, Anantharaju said: “We gave them leeway, and we didn’t measure that. But we told them 3 2 is fine, for starters. Some of these things will evolve over time because it also depends on what projects and when. The most important thing is to get teams together.” Recently, Infosys has allowed its staff to take on outside appearances, provided that such assignment does not compete with the company, its customers or create a conflict of interest.
On whether Happiest Minds is also considering some do’s and don’ts for clearing the air when performing externally, Anantharaju said: “Not yet. At this point, our stance is pretty clear… you work for Happiest Minds and that is the only company you should work for.” Infosys is one of the companies that has taken a strong stance on moonlight. It had previously sent a message to its employees stressing that undeclared work is not allowed, warning that any breach of contract clauses will result in disciplinary action “which could even lead to termination of employment”.
“No two timing – no moonlight!” India’s second largest IT services company had said.
During the company’s second quarter results, Infosys had made it clear that the company is not a proponent of moonlighting and that it has laid off employees who have been working double jobs in the past 12 months.
Last month, Wipro’s Rishad Premji revealed that about 300 employees have been laid off because the IT services company had no place for employees who chose to work directly with rivals while on Wipro’s payroll.
Other IT companies have also joined and raised their voices against moonlight, a practice that has quietly gained ground during pandemic-induced lockdown and home working.
HCL Technologies has said it does not condone dual employment, though it hastened to add that the problem is not a big one within the company.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)