Hyderabad IT companies run checks, close in on moonlighting techies | Hyderabad News – Times of India

HYDERABAD: Days after Wipro boss Rishad Premji said his company had fired 300 people for moonlighting, Hyderabad’s IT sector too is taking a hard look at this vexatious issue. Companies are deploying various methods to crack down on the practice that gained currency in the work from home (WFH) era triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While some companies like Infosys have already dashed off emails to employees warning them of being fired if found moonlighting, many others are planning to follow suit. Quite a few have put their legal department on the job to redraft appointment letters to make them more watertight.

Then there are companies who are busy scouring the EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) website to run a dual employment check on employees, while some are gearing up to increase the number of work from office (WFO) days.
“We had our finance department check UAN numbers of employees on the EPFO employer dashboard to find out if they are associated with other companies,” said the top honcho of a US-based IT services firm operating in Hyderabad.
“From October 1, we are mandating that 100% of the employees come to office at least for 60% of the time, which is three out of five days in a week. Currently, about 65% of our employees are coming to office some days a week,” said Cyient founder chairman BVR Mohan Reddy.
Some companies are even running productivity checks to weed out techies whose performance is flagging. “This is a side-effect of WFH. As long as the WFH and hybrid models continue, this will continue as it is going to be very difficult to investigate. We are carefully reviewing productivity. But companies need more diligence in the WFH era,” said Murali Bollu, CEO, ZenQ, a mid-sized company.
Signalling the industry’s stance on the issue, Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) president Manisha Saboo said: “Employees should abide by the terms of their offer letters. If they want to work with more than one company they should consider becoming a gig worker.” However, most industry honchos feel that there are only a few employees that are engaging in this “unethical” practice.
“The majority is not moonlighting. We are telling employees that its not ethical as per the contract, which says you cannot do more than one job. Those who don’t adhere to the contract will have to seek separation because their mindset and value syst-ems are different from ours,” added Mohan Reddy, who is also former chairman of apex IT industry body Nasscom.
Bollu of ZenQ said it would be very difficult to wean employees off moonlighting unless there was some disruptive force or incentive at work. “Just like the virus force moved the needle from the office to home, some other force has to come into the picture to move the needle back to the office, like recession or potential job loss or incentive of promotion or differential pay,” he said.