Bellevue Indoor Gun Range were sued by 9 employees who had contracted lead poisoning while on the job and were fired after they filed worker’s compensation claims.
According to the complaint, the gun range began a remodeling project in 2012 that required the removal of massive amounts of soil tainted with lead and required the use of heavy machinery in fully enclosed and poorly ventilated areas without the benefit of safety equipment. Because this activity was in violation of state and federal safety standards the defendants required the employees to perform most of the work at night to avoid detection. The employees claim that lead was “washed into public storm drains or vacuumed into shop vacs and dumped down the hill parallel to the gun range.
Within a month the employees became sick and according to medical tests they were suffering from lead poisoning. “Plaintiffs noticed that they were suffering from ill health and were tested by medical offices. One by one, each of them sought testing and received results demonstrating significant lead poisoning. They also began raising safety and environmental concerns with public agencies responsible for workplace safety and the environment,” the complaint states.
The workers say they were fired in retaliation for making the complaints and filing worker’s compensation claims. They claim the gun range and defendant Gaughran “knew that some injury was certain to occur to plaintiffs through the pervasive and unprotected exposure to toxic chemicals, and acted in total disregard of that knowledge.”
According to the State of California Department of Industrial Relations Website, “It is illegal in the State of California to retaliate against any employee who provides information to a government or law enforcement agency where the employee has reasonable cause to believe that the information discloses a violation or noncompliance with a state or federal statute, rule, or regulation. You cannot discharge, demote, suspend or discipline in any manner an employee who engages in this protected activity”.
If you have been wrongfully terminated or injured on the job, please give my office, The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman a call at 877-449-8898 for a free consultation,
