Should Employees Who Moonlight Be Fired?

Alawsuit in Dalian, a city in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, caught the public’s attention at the end of 2018. Xu Yong, a technician working for an auto repair company, sued his company after being fired for violating the company’s regulations by having a job on the side. The court ruled against the company for having no evidence that Xu was moonlighting and undermining company interests.

A side job, or moonlighting, is the work people who are gainfully employed do in their spare time to earn extra income. This is often seen in industries like auto repair, software design, general design and Internet related fields. Many end up in a dispute with the organization that employs them.

Chinese law doesn’t forbid full-time employees to moonlight, but does regulate activities that undermine the interests of the employers. It is specified in China’s Employment Contract Law that the employers have the right to terminate the work contracts of employees who moonlight if they cannot fulfill their duty to the employers because of their other jobs, or refuse to give up moonlighting when required by the employers.

Public opinion is divided on this topic. Those who support the company firing Xu believe that earning money for oneself privately using the reputation of the organization is disloyal and should lead to dismissal. Those who support Xu believe that the organization has no say on how its employees spend their free time and that it is OK for an employee to moonlight as long as it doesn’t affect his or her job in the organization and involve resources of the organization.