Rajeev Chandrasekhar backs moonlighting but cautions against violating employment

[ad_1]

NEW DELHI : Minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar backed moonlighting, and said that companies should understand the employee-entrepreneur mindset of today’s tech force.

“Today’s youngsters have every sense of confidence and purpose about wanting to monetise, create more values put of his or her own skills. So, the efforts of companies that want to pin their employees down and say that you should not work on your own start-up are doomed to fail,” he said at the annual forum of think tank Public Affairs Forum of India.

He said the days when employees signed up with big tech majors and spent their lives on the job were long gone.

“Any captive models will fade. Employers expect employees to be entrepreneurial while serving them. The same people can apply it personally to themselves. Time will come where there will be a community of product builders who will divide their time on multiple projects. Just like lawyers or consultants do. This is the future of work,” he elaborating while agreeing that the moonlighting should not be in violation of any contractual obligations.

“For companies today to try and pin people down and saying, while you’re working for us, you should not think about a startup or you should not think of consulting to your friends, I think is doomed to fail exercise,” he said.

The minister’s support towards moonlighting, where employees work for more than one employer simultaneously, comes at a time when software major Wipro has fired 300 of its employees for working with rival firms and Infosys has cautioned employees against moonlighting, terming it as working on a second job during or outside of regular business hours. It has said that dual employment could lead to job termination.

Chandrasekhar, however, clarified that he did not agree with employees violating contracts which may include non-compete or confidentiality clauses.

“However, I do agree with one part of this moonlighting argument that if you’re a contracted employee of a company, and your contract says, non- compete, has confidentiality clauses then if you violate that you’re obviously running afoul of the contract law,” he said.

Catch all the Corporate news and Updates on Live Mint.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

More
Less

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters

* Enter a valid email

* Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Post your comment

[ad_2]

Source link