Working in a side gig and need to lodge a police report.
I have been teaching private tuition to primary and secondary school kids since uni days, and continued doing so after graduation. Now I hold a full time job (in a trade house) and continue to teach tuition on the weekend.
I specifically asked my HR if there is a clause for “moonlighting” in our contract. She answered ” yes, but if your side job is not anything related to my FT job, she does not see a problem. Basically “do what you want, but don’t get caught”.
Recently, one of the parent (of my tutee’s) stopped replying to my texts. I’ve been waiting on payments for 4 months (Feb – June). Initially, she told me that her account had a problem and that she was still working with the bank. She claimed that she wasn’t able to withdraw nor make a successful transfer out of that account. In turn, I have asked her to transfer me from her husband’s account but she kept avoiding that topic. As such, I’m looking to lodge a police report but I am worried that I may “let the cat out of the bag” that I am moonlighting.
I am also not looking for a lawyer now as my outstanding tuition fees are $500+, minute in comparison to fees in engaging a lawyer.
1. Where do I seek help? Will police handle cases like these?
2. Although teaching has nothing to do with my current job, should I disclose it or will there be any repercussions with disclosing or not disclosing?
Here are what netizens think:
- Moonlighting is illegal in contract, related to your job or not doesn’t matter, is still illegal. If your company finds out, you may be terminated. Just weigh which is more important, I think u should know the answer. What if your moonlighting was exposed and you got terminated, at the same time you still can’t get your money back, isn’t it worse? Just take it as a charity to help a kid in study.
- Live n let live, since you been making money from them. Perhaps the parent facing financial cashflow problem. If u make police report, it only make this small issues into so big that it may implicate you too. Life is short.live n let live
- Moonlighting is between u and your employer. If your employer finds out u are moonlighting n decides to pursue the matter, they can sue or such. But its difficult coz they usually need to prove that moonlighting affected your work. And if u didnt moonlight during working hrs, shld be fine. I think theres a fair bit of working class pple who moonlights for years. Usually employers will understand as long doesnt affect your quality of work.As for your tuition fee, u can lodge a police report. But not sure what police can do. Most probably they will advise u on the civil route.Alternatively, U can employ legal debt collectors. There are good ones that are professional n get the job done.