NOLA Ready logo
The City of New Orleans

Hard Rock Building Collapse Updates

Thu
Oct 17
2019
5:55 PM
Hard Rock Building Collapse

Information for Businesses and Employees Impacted by the Hard Rock Collapse

Business Impact Survey

Businesses in the evacuation zone or road closure zone or otherwise impacted businesses should complete the following survey as soon as possible:

https://www.nola.gov/economic-development/hard-rock-hotel-collapse-business-response-survey/. This information will help aid the response and communication efforts.

Resource Center Open Daily

The City of New Orleans is offering information and assistance for individuals directly impacted by the Hard Rock Hotel collapse. The Resource Center will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Main Library, 219 Loyola Ave. Staff from the Office of Economic Development or our economic development partners will be present. A Spanish interpreter will also be present.

Louisiana Workforce Commission Response

Individuals whose work situation has been adversely affected by the Hard Rock Hotel collapse may reach out to the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) for unemployment insurance consideration.

  • The first step would be to file an unemployment claim, either via the LWC website, where this a button on the homepage for impacted employees: http://www.laworks.net/  (available 24 hours a day), or by calling the LWC Unemployment Call Center, 866-783-5567, during normal business hours. The call is toll free.
  • Individuals can go to the Job 1 Career Center, 3400 Tulane Ave., 2nd Floor, New Orleans, for computer access; however, individual unemployment assistance from staff is not available.

To be eligible to file for unemployment benefits in connection with this event, an individual must have been employed by one of the businesses directly affected by the Hard Rock hotel incident at the time of the collapse.  

Unemployment claims associated with the hotel collapse would be considered “job attached,” with plans to return work for the same company. In this situation, normal work search requirements will be waived/deferred for six weeks. 

A number of factors determine unemployment eligibility, such as the total amount of wages earned by the individual during the eligibility period, whether or not the individual is considered self-employed, and if the employing company is exempt from paying unemployment taxes.

  • A review of an individual’s employment history and wages over the last 18 months is done to determine eligibility and the amount of benefits to be awarded.
  • If any recent employment was in another state or with the military or federal government, it may take a little longer to process the unemployment claim.

As long as an individual is unemployed, he or she should file for benefits every week, even while the claim is under review for eligibility. All claims have what is called a “week of waiting.” No benefits are paid for the first week that you file for unemployment. Affected workers may also contact JOB1, 3400 Tulane Avenue, (504) 658-4500.