Dear Editor,
I read with interest The Independent Singapore’s featured news: Employee asks if “moonlighting is prevalent in Singapore and companies are fine with it (March 27).
As far as I know, one of the rules and regulations of the Human Resources Policy of any large private corporation has specified that moonlighting is strictly prohibited in any form.
This is also clearly reflected in the employee’s letter of appointment or his/her contract of service.
Also, this specific clause of the employment agreement is especially and essentially reflected in the public service employee’s contract of service.
However, the key question we need to ask is, is moonlighting allowed without conflicting, threatening or harming the company’s commercial interests and confidentiality?
Is moonlighting allowed when an employee can juggle and balance his full-time and part-time jobs well?
In other words, have his work performance and attendance at his full-time job not been adversely affected or affected to an acceptable degree?
In reality, amid the increasingly obvious high cost of living and unpredictable inflation factors that exist externally and internally, our middle and low-income families face a prevalence of life and work pressures.
These have accelerated their efforts to find ways of increasing their household income to keep their families afloat. Hence, we can easily notice that many people in low—and middle-income groups seek part-time moonlighting jobs.
Nevertheless, those moonlighting employees must consider all the pros and cons before deciding accordingly.
For example, whether they have spare time, the suitability of their physical and mental health conditions, and whether their endeavours will contravene their contract of service (or their employment agreement).
In short, do they (the moonlighters) need to pay a high price for the consequences of their actions/decisions if they get caught by their employers?
Teo Kueh Liang
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Independent Singapore.
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