Either working hard or operating dishonestly (8)
I believe the answer is:
grafting
'operating dishonestly' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grafting that I've seen before include "Transplanting a shoot onto new stock" , "Working hard" , "performing transplant surgery" .)