Moon Lighting in Corporate World

April 2, 2023

This article has been written by Bidisha Banerjee, a 2nd year BA LLB student of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, University of Calcutta.

INTRODUCTION

Moonlighting refers to the practice of taking up a secondary job, especially without informing the employer. The term was coined owing to the employees taking up another job at nights after their day shifts, ie, working under the ‘moonlight’.

TYPES OF MOONLIGHTING

The HRM (Human Resources Management) categorises moonlighting in four parts, which are as follows:

1. Blue Moonlighting

Many employees often find it difficult and fail to manage two jobs in a day. This failed endeavour is termed as blue moonlighting.

2. Quarter Moonlighting

The practice of holding a part-time job aside from a regular job is known as quarter moonlighting.

3. Half Moonlighting

When an employee spends 50% or more of his available time at a part-time job, it is known as half moonlighting.

4. Full Moonlighting

Full moonlighting is to parallelly hold two full-time professions/jobs. Some individuals have even established successful businesses while simultaneously working in a normal job. In many instances, the second occupation is said to dictate the social standing of a person.

REASONS FOR MOONLIGHTING

1. Salaries and incentives are not enough for the employees to maintain their standard of life.

It has been observed that many Indian companies have lower starting salaries, when compared with foreign companies. Notwithstanding the inflation, major IT companies in India have kept their starting salaries within the same bracket for the past 10-12 years.

Plus, the dearth of companies providing jobs has forced the educated youth to take up jobs with low starting packages.

Employees are discontented with the pay package and many of them suspect that their employers are wringing them out for higher profits, thus feeling dispirited by their employer’s policies and pay.

2. Because of soaring prices of basic necessities due to inflation, people are forced to take up two jobs for their sustenance.

3. Concurrent income streams are required to secure financial independence.

The FIRE concept (Financial Independence; Retire Early) is vogue among the modern youth and are willing to be financially independent as soon as possible.

Without numerous sources of income, it may be quite hard to ensure financial independence in future.

4. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, people started to work from home. As a result, there was more free time on employees’ hands. That, and lack of continuous supervision, common in office spaces, let employees take up a new hobby or activity and generate extra income from the said hobby or activity.

5. Mass Layoffs and Hiring freezes:

Many professionals, especially in tech companies, were quite stressed as the COVID-19 epidemic caused several businesses to announce huge layoffs, with the process of hiring slowing down during the lockdown. Employees were obligated to take up side employment during the lockdown considering that they might lose their jobs.

6. Entrepreneurial spirit:

Inspired by many successful startups, the youth are invigorated to establish their own business venture, thus stimulating the moonlighting culture.
A regular job serves as capital support to the founders of startups and as a backup, in case the startup fails.

7. Because of a lack of appreciation on part of the employers towards their employees, the latter feel as if they do not belong to the organisation. The workers feel discontent with their jobs, duties and responsibilities.

8. A person may moonlight in order to polish their skill sets so that they can advance into the career they are most interested in and passionate about.

9. To combat boredom:

To fight the psychological effects of boredom brought on by the COVID-19 lockdown, the employees began to pursue their passions or side jobs. Many people felt bored during the COVID-19 lockdown. So to fight boredom, many people started pursuing their passions or took up side jobs.

10. Because of working from home, people do not have to waste time commuting. They started to invest the extra time they had at their hands on side gigs of their choice.

IS MOONLIGHTING ETHICAL?

The concept of moonlighting is not new. It has been around for a long time, like, teachers conducting private tuitions after teaching at schools, or doctors carrying out private practice after their shifts in hospitals. Moonlighting received public attention, after the food delivery company Swiggy permitted its staff to work on outside projects for pay or for free subject to specific parameters and constraints in early August, 2022. The workers are free to work outside office hours or during weekends so long as their productivity is not hampered and no conflict of interest should arise with their regular job.

A major fintech company, Cred, stated that it favoured side jobs by quoting that its head of design and engineering being a member of the Carnatic rock band ‘Agam’.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji claimed holding a second job as “cheating, plain and simple” in his Tweet. Rishad Premji announced that the company had warned 300 workers, discovered to be simultaneously employed by one of its rivals. Later on, the chief executive of Wipro claimed that those who breached the contract of service, were fired.

C P Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra, favoured the idea of moonlighting and said that the employees could even consider it. He was in favour of allowing staff to take on extra work. He expressed his willingness to make moonlighting a business policy, if given a chance, provided that the employees were upfront about it. . He tweeted that it is important to adapt to the times and added, “I welcome disruption in the ways we work.”

According to N Ganapathy Subramaniam, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IT powerhouse Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), moonlighting is unethical and that the IT sector will gravely suffer as a consequence. In his words, “Moonlighting is an ethical issue; we need to instil the ethics and (concept of) doing what is right, and if we do something like this for short-term profits, we will lose out in the long run.”

LEGALITY OF MOONLIGHTING

Indian law does not define moonlighting but has regulations regarding dual employment

The Factories Act, 1948 prohibits an employer from demanding an adult employee to work on days he already has worked in another workplace. Under Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1946, there are various rules like, a worker not to work against the interest of the industrial establishment he is employed in, and not to take up additional employment conflicting with the interest of the employer. These regulations have limited scope, being only to specific businesses and employment groups.

The Shops and Establishments Act governs employees working in retail establishments, dining establishments, theatres, and other public amusement or entertainment facilities, as well as information technology and information technology-enabled services, etc. The Shops and Establishments Act is unique to every state. For instance, the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act of 1954 forbids multiple works. On the other hand, Bombay Shops and Establishment Act, 1948 prohibits a worker from working on holidays or leave days.

And, if the employment contract contains a clause, which specifically prohibits a worker from taking up a job during the course of employment after working hours, or something like that, then moonlighting will lead to breach of contract, which might bring in legal action. So, it is necessary to read the contract of employment thoroughly if one is interested in moonlighting in the course of employment.

CONCLUSION

Moonlighting has caused quite a stir within the gig economy. Questions have been raised regarding its legality and morality. While the legal opinion regarding this matter is quite barren, employers are divided amongst themselves regarding the ethics behind this practice. While some employers supported it, others flagged this trend as immoral and harmful. To them, moonlighting may lead to overworking of employees, which might affect their productivity. Plus, by working for rival establishments or establishments with conflicting interests can seem to be unethical as the employers fear that there might be a breach of confidentiality by the employees.

On the other hand, the employees believe that they must not be subjected to control outside the working hours and be able to spend their free time as they wish. Since there is no clear legal provision regarding this issue, employment contracts must lay down clear clauses regarding moonlighting until any major legal developments in this matter take place.

REFERENCE

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April 2, 2023