At the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) our hearts go out to those impacted by the Maui wildfires. We remain steadfast in our commitment to serve our community. We immediately responded to this crisis by supporting the workers and families affected by this deadly tragedy.

Given the victims’ dire economic straits and the telecommunications and transportation challenges they faced, we waived HireNet registration and work search requirements for Maui claimants beginning Aug. 6. This makes it easier for eligible unemployment insurance (UI) claimants to receive their benefits without having to certify work search requirements for weekly claims.

We expanded our call center hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. We developed a special option for Maui applicants to help file claims over the phone if they did not have access to a smartphone or computer. We staffed the Disaster Recovery Center at the University of Hawaii- Maui and began accepting regular UI and disaster unemployment assistance (DUA) claims at the Hyatt Regency in Kaanapali (now at the Lahaina Civic Center). All our Maui offices have remained open to the public. We developed a Hawaii Disaster Recovery Portal that focuses on disaster recovery jobs and efforts on Maui.

DLIR assisted language access by providing legal notices and other important messages in five languages: Spanish, Japanese, Tagalog, simplified Chinese and Ilocano. We have focused our community outreach on groups representing those directly impacted. I have personally conducted interviews in Ilocano on statewide and Maui radio, recognizing that many of those affected by this tragic event are immigrants from Ilocano-speaking areas of the Philippines.

Without a doubt, the circumstances on the ground on Maui remain challenging. We are constantly analyzing our processes and reallocating staff to different parts of the claim process — including the call center — to reduce service delays. We moved up the launch of our partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL) and the U.S. Postal Service. This partnership offers claimants the ability to provide the identity proof requirements to initiate a claim for UI and DUA benefits. We also created a questionnaire on our claims website to assist individuals who are unsure whether they should file for regular UI or DUA benefits.

We at the DLIR have learned our lessons from the recent past. We allocated $2.8 million in pandemic federal funds to stabilize and harden the upfront web application. We also provided $2.7 million to the Office of Enterprise Technology Services to upgrade the DLIR’s current mainframe system and applications. With these enhancements to the upfront web application, we do not expect to experience the same filing logjams that occurred during the pandemic.

Lastly, the DLIR recently received a $10 million National Dislocated Worker Grant from the U.S. DOL to support relief and recovery efforts for communities affected by the wildfires. These funds will go toward humanitarian and nonhazardous clean-up efforts by employing affected workers at state agencies and private-sector companies selected by Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. (MEO). Our attached agency, the Office of Community Services, contracted with MEO to provide employment services for the limited-English-proficiency population. It also provided funds for language services through the Pacific Gateway Center. These federal funds will help the local population apply for jobs that will help rebuild Lahaina.

I want to assure our community we are working day and night and doing everything within our power to support relief and recovery efforts for communities affected by the wildfires on Maui. We are applying all our energies and experiences to ensure that the mistakes from the past are never repeated.

Jade Butay is director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.