When electronics manufacturer Jabil discovered nearly half of the temps sent by a staffing firm weren’t authorized to work in the US, it immediately ended their assignments. The move dealt a blow to plant capacity and resulted in difficulties with Jabil’s own customer. An ongoing lawsuit now seeks damages from the staffing firm Human Bees, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was originally filed in April 2023 but is continuing through the courts. A court date is scheduled later this month.

Jabil said in the complaint that it first agreed to work with Human Bees in February 2020 to provide staffing at California facilities in Fremont, Great Oaks and Livermore. The temporary workers served as machinists and worked on the assembly line.

Difficulties emerged in April 2021 when Jabil sought to convert Human Bees workers to its own employees, according to the complaint.

“During interviews with these Human Bees employees and their Jabil production supervisor, several of the employees told the Jabil supervisor that they did not want to convert to full-time status with Jabil,” according to the complaint. “When pressed further, it was disclosed that the Human Bees’ workers were concerned that they did not have the ‘proper documentation’ to become Jabil employees.”

Out of the 159 total workers provided by Human Bees to Jabil, 47% were not authorized to work in the US, according to court documents.

Jabil said in the filing that it immediately ceased the assignment of those workers but suffered a 50% drop in plant capacity.

“Despite engaging in herculean efforts to swiftly locate replacement workers and reestablish production levels, the speed with which Jabil’s personnel could ramp up production was limited by the logistics of locating replacement workers and the three-week training processes for new labor and resulted in an extended period of reduced production capacity; i.e., five weeks at 50% capacity, two weeks at 70% capacity and one week at 90% capacity,” according to the complaint.

Jabil’s own workers were forced to work significant amounts of overtime and the company experienced a higher-than-normal attrition rate, the complaint said. In addition, Jabil was placed on a new business hold by its customer for four months as a result of the difficulties, which resulted in Jabil not being able to pursue approximately $50 million in work. Human Bees denied the allegations in its response to the complaint.

Previously in this case, the court in November 2023 overruled several legal “demurrers” filed by Human Bees that targeted the sufficiency of the complaint in this lawsuit.

Attorneys for Human Bees have been contacted for comment.

A case management conference in the lawsuit is scheduled for Feb. 26.

Jabil vs. Human Bees; Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara; 23CV413954