What is moonlighting and why is it a threat to India’s IT industry
Moonlighting should be done or not?
This is a question whose answer to an extent depends on your monthly salary and age.
Because while on the one hand the top officials of the IT sector are calling it unethical. On the other hand, the search for ways to do moonlighting secretly among the youth is going on.
This is probably the first time that India’s software industry seems to be split into two parts. And the tussle between the two sides continues.
Taking tough steps, IT companies have also started punishing the employees who do moonlighting.
Wipro has recently fired 300 employees who did moonlighting.
After this, Infosys has also accepted the removal of its employees.
Why do young people moonlight?
There is a simple answer to this question – money.
This one answer gives answers to all the questions that the young generation of India is currently grappling with.
These issues are – lack of jobs, salaries not rising compared to inflation, and a period of great uncertainty.
Management consulting firm Deloitte has found in its survey that more than thirty and forty percent of youth of ‘Millennials’ and ‘Generation Z’ respectively in India are forced to do ‘side jobs’ to meet their expenses.
In the same survey a year ago, more than half of the youth of both generations said that the main reasons for their constant stress are jobs, personal economic conditions, family needs and low job prospects.
Not only this, the survey of the year 2022 has revealed that one of the biggest reasons for the youth leaving the job is not enough salary.
Millennials refer to the youth who were born between 1983 and 1994. At the same time, Generation Z refers to the youth born between 1995 and 2003.
Are changing priorities the big reason?
HR expert Satyaki Bhattacharya, who has been playing top roles in the media and IT sectors for the past three decades, believes the issue needs to be looked at from the perspective of the changes taking place in the social and economic world.
He says, “Moonlighting is nothing new. It has definitely come into the limelight during the Kovid-19 pandemic. But the issue needs to be looked at from the perspective of changes in society. Changes are taking place in social values. Gone are the times when a youth wants to start a job in a company and retire from it. Now the youth want to do the work in which they feel their heart. They want to do more money earning work.’
Why the huge difference in salaries?
With the help of moonlighting, youth can earn twice or thrice their salary every month. This money gives them a sense of security in an era when it has become common for hundreds of employees to be fired at one stroke.
Not only this, a huge number of employees were laid off during the Kovid-19 epidemic.
And the huge cut in salaries has created a sense of insecurity among the youth.
According to Money Control, a website that gives news related to the business world, in the first six months of the epidemic, about 1.5 lakh employees of the IT sector were fired.
But the question arises whether the situation was better before the Kovid-19 epidemic.
Talking about the IT sector, for the last several years, there has been a sky-high difference in the growth rate of the salaries of freshers and top executives of IT companies.
Naveen admits, “It is not possible that companies can completely stop moonlighting. They try to corner employees at one level, then employees will find other ways. It is important to solve the root problems.”
Can moonlighting be stopped legally?
But can companies stop moonlighting with the help of law without solving these basic problems?
There is no clear definition of moonlighting in Indian laws. In such a situation, there are no clear laws to stop it.
However, companies can take legal action against employees through different laws.
For example, under the Factories Act – 1948, an employer cannot allow an adult worker to work at two places in a day.
Under the Shops and Establishment Act applicable to IT companies, it is also prohibited to work in two places simultaneously.
