It depends upon the nature of the work involved. If he's hired as a programmer for a company, 99% of the time, this involves him turning over any license/title/copyright to the company he's working for. If this is a customer wanting to license something he's written/writing/will write, by all means keep the copyright and just license out the work.

Most people, however, working with a 'programmer' title for a company, have no claim over the work they're producing. It belongs to the company.

And again, this is all subject to the terms of the contract and whether or not he's working for an employer, or providing a solution to a customer, etc.