‘Against core values and culture’: TCS's stance on moonlighting
TCS will come up with its final views only after taking into account ‘all the relevant dimensions.’
TCS, India’s top IT exporter said that moonlighting was an ethical issue and is against the core values and company’s culture on Monday. However no action has been taken against those who are working for another organisation.
Tata Consulting Services will come up with its final views only after taking into account ‘all the relevant dimensions.’
“Moonlighting we believe is an ethical issue and it's against our TCS core values and culture in general. I'm not talking about the IT industry as a whole, I'm talking about the TCS perspective. We have been communicating this to employees," Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Office, said on October 10.
It was codified in the company’s employment contract that employees weren’t allowed to work for any other organisation, Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Gopinathan said.
N Ganapathy Subramaniam, the COO of TCS, previously referred to moonlighting as an "ethical issue." The IT industry, according to Subramaniam, will be adversely affected by its permissive policies regarding moonlighting.
Infosys and Wipro, competitors of TCS, have criticised the practice. While Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji has stated that the company let go of 300 people working for rival companies, Infosys sent a warning email to employees.
In September, TCS issued a directive requiring staff to work from the company's offices at least three days per week and stating that adherence to the company roster was required.
The announcement of TCS's 25/25 model, under which no more than 25% of its employees would be required to work outside of the company's offices at any given time and no more than 25% of their time would be spent there, coincides with the call for workers to return to the office.
What is moonlighting?
Moonlighting policy refers to working additional jobs outside of their primary job's regular business hours. The majority of Indian businesses forbid employees from taking on additional employment due to issues with conflicts of interest, employee productivity, or resource abuse.