Jabil calls holiday plant closings and layoffs 'normal course of business'

St. Petersburg-based Jabil Inc., one of the largest companies in the region with $33 billion in revenue, calls the temporary closure of six plants and the layoff of nearly 1,400 employees in California during the holiday season the “normal course of business this time of year.”

In an emailed statement to the Business Observer Wednesday evening, Jabil’s spokesman Timur Aydin writes that when production schedules are favorable the company enacts “temporary site closures across multiple sites” every year during the holidays.

“These temporary closures afford our workers the opportunity to recharge, give back, travel and spend time with family and friends over the holidays,” Aydin writes.

Employees are paid for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and can use “accrued paid time off — including wellness or company paid volunteer time — during this period to take care of themselves and their community, as they see fit.” 

Aydin did not respond to a follow-up email seeking information on how many plants or employees are affected by the closures companywide and how much the company saves during the closures.

Aydin’s email was in response to one of several requests for comment ahead of a story in the Business Observer on Monday, Nov. 7, about the company’s plans to lay off 1,364 California employees and close six plants for the final week to 10 days of the year. 

According to six letters the publicly traded company sent to California’s Employment Development Department in late October, the layoffs and plant closings will mostly begin in the days before Christmas and last through the first week of 2023. 

The Golden State’s WARN database shows 549 employees will be let go at a plant in Fremont, 484 in San Jose, 123 in Livemore, 83 in Manteca, 73 in Irvine and 52 in Benicia.

The layoffs appear on California’s WARN database and the letters, submitted to the state to meet federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification notice requirements, were provided to the Business Observer by the employment department.

The letters to officials in California were written and the layoffs were posted to the state database between Oct. 20-25.

Jabil, which has global operations in 30 countries, designs and manufactures components for a wide range of industries, including health care, automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics and telecommunications. 

On Nov. 4, about two weeks after the letters were sent, the company announced Kenny Wilson will replace Mark Mondello as CEO in May. Mondello will remain as company chair after the handover.