Seminole employees to lose jobs as company outsources services

DZS, a Dallas telecommunications company, is laying off 58 employees in Seminole as the global company outsources its manufacturing operations.

The company announced the job cuts in a letter to the state saying the cuts were “caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable as of the time that notice would have been required.”

The company says in the letter that layoffs will begin Dec. 5 and will be permanent.

The letter, signed by DZS Chief Legal Officer Justin Feguson, was sent to meet WARN Notice requirements. Federal law requires companies to provide states with Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification notices when making job cuts.

The Seminole cuts come as DZS, a telecommunications equipment company, enters into a partnership agreement with global manufacturer Fabrinet allowing it “to strategically shift to a contract manufacturing model.”

As part of the agreement, DZS will move its sourcing, procurement, order-fulfillment, manufacturing and return merchandise authorization activities in Seminole to Fabrinet by the end of the year.

A statement provided by a DZS spokesperson says that “post transaction, the DZS Seminole, Florida-based operations, supply chain and manufacturing workforce will be reduced by approximately two-thirds and the remaining team will be relocated to an appropriately sized facility.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a question about how many employees would remain after the layoffs.

Employees losing their jobs will get job placement support including job fairs and transfer assistance, the company says.

DZS says on its website that “over 1,200 service providers, operators and enterprises in over 120 countries” have used it services. It has operations, research and development centers and sales offices in 12 countries, three in the U.S.

The Oct. 4 statement did not address any other facilities.