Moonlighting: Ethics, Legality And Relevance In The Ambit Of The Gig Economy

Monoj Kumar Hazarika

(mkhazarika11@gmail.com)

M moonlighting is currently grabbing headlines in the corporate world. A second job, typically secretly done at night, in addition to one's regular employment, or the practice of working for one organization while also taking up extra responsibilities and jobs, typically without the employer's knowledge, is referred to as moonlighting. It is called so because it is typically performed at night or on the weekends. The phrase became well-known when Americans began looking for second jobs in addition to their regular 9-to-5 jobs to supplement their income.

Recently when Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji tweeted; "There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating- plain and simple". This has created lot of buzz in the corporate world and mainly in the Information Technology (IT) industry. Many industry leaders and stalwarts expressed their views and opinions, and these being varied and contradictory, it has made it a trending topic for reasoning and debate among all stakeholders. After the employers, the employees have also started airing their views. The debate started with whether it is right or wrong, but gradually it extended to the aspect of ethics, legality and morality.

Moonlighting is not new and it is prevalent in many professions, especially with people associated with the health and education sectors, and that too with financial gains! It's a boon for people enduring multiple talents. But, with the growing gig economy which is characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs, moonlighting will undoubtedly rise in many other sectors. It's one among the new normal after the pandemic where moonlighting is practiced to earn extra income and experience. The sudden disruption, job losses and diminished employment opportunities due to the pandemic has also triggered it to a great extent.

However, the concern is now mostly deliberated with the Information Technology (IT) sector workers. The pandemic induced work from home (WFH) and remote working made it easier when employees remain out of sight from peers and superiors. Scarce talent in the scope of the growing start-up ecosystem is another factor attributed to its rise in this sector.

Ethics and morality are relative terms. While some consider moonlighting as unethical, many term this as an emerging trend and need of the day. With advanced technology, utility gadgets and apps and better broadband connectivity, job productivity has improved reducing time to accomplish routine tasks. This allows efficient and talented individuals to explore other opportunities. There shouldn't be any issue if an IT professional teaches yoga in the morning or offers tuitions in the evening, thereby earning some extra money - even for that matter, helping a friend to develop a software required for any business. This act of helping a friend is moral in perspective to friendship and maybe immoral from the perspective of the employer. The concern raised is mainly for the captive employees engaged in dual jobs of similar nature in the same industry. This fosters a serious question on the sanctity of their employment norms. Ignoring one's primary job responsibilities and indulging in a different assignment can be considered a misdemeanour, whereas breach of trust, fraud, misuse of confidential documents or data theft can surely be termed as felony. At the same time, does ethics and morality count when organizations lay off hundreds of people at short notice? Is the concept of hiring and firing employees with changing business cycles ethical? Therefore, it's difficult and imprudent to judge ethics and morality from a limited perspective.

As for legality, it's a derivative or compliance of the contract signed between the employee and the employer. As per the Factories Act, dual employment is restricted in India. The same is also applicable to many corporate and government entities. However, if the contract does not specify any binding on dual employment, it's up to the employee to take up a manageable additional job abiding by the contractual features without violating any related clause of their contract.

But, the pertinent point is the relevance of moonlighting in the ambit of the fast growing gig economy. Earlier, employees were broadly classified as permanent or full-time and temporary or part-time. Job security was the prime concern. But, with the emergence of the gig economy, also referred to as the sharing economy, it mostly depends on contractual and independent contract employees. Thus, employee classification expanded based on the type of the job, duration of work hours and the compensation brackets. While the contractual employees might be full-time and within company payroll, independent contractors, on-call and remote working employees were normally out of company payroll. These off-roll workers do not necessarily come under any kind of binding contracts and thus are free to undertake additional jobs. Swiggy - the foodtech start-up, introduced a moonlighting policy for their full-time employees allowing them to take up a side gig. Employees were free to engage in a different activity outside of office hours and on weekends.This might set a new trend on employment policies across industries. With the gig workforce expected to expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029-30 at all level of skills, a renewed work ethics and culture will evolve in all segment of industries.

The world is changing and the corporate monogamy with some captive labour mindset is waning. The winds of change in terms of employees' concept of job security are visible when young professionals are least bothered about stability, rather believing in flexibility and experimenting in new things. They don't mind taking risks even in the early phase of their career. Many 'new normal' have emerged in the post-pandemic working eco-system. Going forward, since the hybrid model of working has already been accepted, moonlighting should also be acknowledged as an emerging trait and existing policies need to be re-set, staffing norms to be re-looked, work law to be redefined and amicable policies need to be propounded which can mutually benefit both the employees and the employers.