Wipro fired senior employee in 10 minutes for ‘integrity violation': Rishad Premji

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji has revealed that his company fired a senior employee in just 10 minutes over a “huge integrity violation”.

“We made that decision in 10 minutes. It was an important role that this person ran for the organisation but when the times are tough, and you have to make those tough calls,” Premji said while speaking at the Nasscom Product Conclave in Bengaluru on Wednesday (October 19).

“There is a zero-one policy for any form of integrity violation, any form of harassment. You can be me in the company, and I won’t have a job if I violate one of those two,” he added.

Also read: Wipro sacks 300 employees for moonlighting; what Rishad Premji says

Last month, Wipro said it had terminated the services of 300 employees after the firm discovered that they were working for their competitors while still being on the payroll of the company.

“The reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors and we have actually discovered 300 people in the last few months who are doing exactly that,” Premji had said while speaking at AIMA’s (All India Management Association) National Management Convention in New Delhi.

Asked about the action taken against employees who were found to be working parallelly for the company as well as for rivals, Premji, on the sidelines of the event, said that their employment had been terminated for an “act of integrity violation”.

Also read: Moonlighting a question of ethics, not legalities: Wipro CEO

The definition of moonlighting itself is about having another job secretively. As part of transparency, individuals can have candid and open conversations around playing in a band or “working on a project over the weekend”, he explained.

“That is an open conversation that the organisation and the individual can make a concerted choice about, on whether that works for them or doesn’t,” he said.

Recently, the company’s CEO Thierry Delaporte said that while little side jobs were fine, working for a competitor is a “question of ethics”.

Employees signing up for the company are expected “not only to dedicate time for Wipro but also keep time for themselves and for families,” he said. It was “perfectly fine with someone having a little side job here and there. It is different if you are working for a company that is in our environment (business), for example,” he said.