Moonlighting worries put IT companies in a spot

Moonlighting has emerged as a major challenge for IT companies at a time when most of them allow their employees to work from home because of the pandemic.

Full -time employees on the payrolls of the companies are also taking up side assignments to earn extra income and this has compounded the problems for IT companies as they face productivity and revenue challenges.

An employee was caught working for seven companies at the same time.


“We know the name of the person and which companies he worked for, because his PF records showed the employment details. It was caught by the HR managers of one of the firms, after they found multiple active PF accounts. It’s difficult to catch such cases,” a Times of India report quoted Birlasoft CEO Dharmender Kapoor, who is also Nasscom’s regional council chair for Noida, as saying.

Lack of any central database for employees also adds to the challenge of finding out if an employee is moonlighting.

“Subject to privacy considerations, employers may need to check the employee’s tax filings or provident fund account to ascertain whether there is any salary or income from other sources during the term of employment. Indian courts have also recognised the fact that moonlighting adversely affects the employee’s productivity,” Vikram Shroff, head of HR law practice at law firm Nishith Desai Associates, told Times of India.

Moonlighting may be specifically prohibited for employees according to the terms of their employment but in certain cases of temporary or contractual employment, it may not be a big concern for the employer.

Conflict of interest and impact on productivity are the major reasons that moonlighting is discouraged.

Moonlighting is also scuppering plans for continuing work from home as companies face pressure to call their employees back to work or at least adopt a hybrid approach.