Insurance payments for shutdowns

[jblaze424]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

Our restaurant had a fire early April. We were closed fully for a little over a week. When we reopened, we had to limit reservations VASTLY due to only being able to operate out of our smaller kitchen and that continues to this day. The business is receiving insurance payments to cover the loss of business. Is any of that supposed to go to the employees? I never thought it would but I learned about a similar situation recently with a different restaurant where the company had to pay some of the insurance money to the servers. My pay is about 1/3 of the previous years pay so it's a pretty substantial loss on our part so I thought it would be worth an ask.... TIA.

 

[adjusterjack]

The business interruption insurance would cover only continuing expenses.

There would be no coverage for employee pay if you were laid off for the down time.

You should have immediately filed for unemployment compensation. Yes, I am aware that UC has a waiting period before benefits kick in but you would have been on claim if the down time lasted more than a week.

You might still have gotten partial UC benefits because of the reduction in pay.

 

[jblaze424]

Thank you for your reply. I should clarify, I did get unemployment for the shut down period. This is a high end restaurant so no chance for partial unemployment as we typically make good money here. I made 6 figures last year so even now, at 1/3 income, I'm still at around 30k for the year so far. I just have a lot of medical expenses so I thought I would see what other people thought. That's what I thought as well but was just wondering if I was wrong.

 

[zddoodah]

The business is receiving insurance payments to cover the loss of business. Is any of that supposed to go to the employees?

No.

I learned about a similar situation recently with a different restaurant where the company had to pay some of the insurance money to the servers.

"Had to"? Or chose to? Needless to say, without a link to whatever you read, this anecdote doesn't really add anything to the discussion.