Rishad Premji, Executive Chairman of IT major Wipro, has called moonlighting by employees in the tech industry ‘cheating’.
In a tweet, Premji wrote, “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple.”
Moonlighting means employees have a second job, typically secretly, in addition to their regular employment. According to reports, this comes as Wipro has opted to withhold variable pay for its mid and senior-level executives for the June quarter due to pressure on operating margins.
The company had reportedly stated in an email that employees in C bands and above (managers to C-suite level) would not receive any variable pay. Additionally, the associates in A and B bands (freshers to team leader levels) will receive 70 per cent of the target variable pay for the quarter, subject to a billability threshold.
Wipro had reported a 20.68 per cent year-on-year(YoY) fall in net profit at ₹2,563.6 crore for the quarter-ended June 30. The operating margin for the quarter was at 15.0 per cent, a decrease of 200 bps quarter-on-quarter(QoQ).