Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, which shook the world, changes in employment patterns have become apparent. Flourishing sectors with dynamic work environments suffered jerks and trembled with fewer jobs, high prices and minimal demand. In the wake of the post-pandemic period, a new phenomenon gaining prevalence is dual job-holding or moonlighting. Moonlighters, though small in number, have existed since the initiation of work culture in the world as well as India. The primary motivations for it are existing constraints in their main jobs, acquiring a new portfolio of jobs that add to their job characteristics, gaining training on new occupations, meeting financial necessities and lack of interest in the current employment, among other things. Sometimes moonlighters work in the same industry for their primary and secondary jobs, and at times they are engaged in different industries due to their job insecurities or considering the prospects of their occupation.
Its propagators believe that moonlighting is a result of dissatisfaction of employees in their primary jobs, which eventually results in lower regular pay, and loss of overtime pay and thus reduces productivity. Of course, employees often take a stand on the exercise of freedom of choice to encourage the marketability of one’s skills based on the availability of one’s time. The act of undertaking work in more than one organisation, usually without the knowledge of the employer, is known as moonlighting. It is termed ‘moonlighting’ because the work is undertaken at night only during designated hours or on weekends. Usually, a moonlighter engages in secondary employment due to less amount of wages in the existing job. As a result, moonlighters even accept underpaid jobs in their secondary employment. Data available through empirical analysis indicates that the shorter the workweek, the more willing the moonlighter is to accept secondary employment in settings that require a rigid or even full-time schedule. Typically, a moonlighter works part-time on their secondary job, under a flexible, self-determined schedule.
The characteristics of various types of moonlighting can be seen in almost all occupations, such as a doctor or a teacher working in a public organisation, and additionally choosing secondary employment in a private institution for higher incentives and maximum utilisation of their resources. More visible footprints of moonlighters have been found in the IT sector, where delivery of services is done through an online mode. Simultaneous logging into multiple sites enables moonlighters to undertake numerous assignments at the same time which has raised ethical issues, but these are not strictly prohibited in law. The legal position in India prohibits a non-compete clause, which leads to an implication that moonlighting is violative of employment contracts. But legal jurists have always considered this to be unjustified. This is so because the law, by this, implies interference with the liberty of individuals while entering into contracts and thus affects trade. Additionally, the Law Commission of India, in its 13th report in 1958 noted that the prohibition under section 27 needs to be reviewed to include reasonable restrictions. Thus, moonlighting can be permitted when there is a well-defined policy about the nature of agreements that employees can enter into during and post-employment.
