Some law firms have been accused of fostering toxic environments. But employees of Barulich Dugoni & Suttmann Law Group claim that the office's atmosphere physically sickened them.

Four former and current team members of the San Mateo, California law firm are suing for damages after leadership allegedly dismissed claims that the office's air quality caused health problems and that firm management did not accommodate ailing workers.

Beginning November 2017, employees began smelling smoke in the law office and discovered a powder dusting their workspaces, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

After experiencing coughing, difficulty breathing, headaches and sore throats, workers determined construction on the floor above them had likely released pollutants. Over the course of a year, several workers' health conditions reportedly deteriorated. Workers cited upper respiratory infections, asthma, persistent fevers, acid reflux and reduced lung capacity.

The workers claim they confronted the firm's Executive Director Steve Parker and managing partners Paul Barulich and Larry Dugoni with their concerns.

“They were met with sarcastic responses that belittled their worsening health conditions, despite the fact that they all had notes from their physicians expressly linking their health problems to the toxic air at work,” attorneys at San Francisco's Hoyer & Hicks firm wrote in the complaint. “Their doctors required they be accommodated and allowed to work from home, which did not interfere with their work duties, but BDS refused to accommodate plaintiffs.”

The complaint also contends that workers who were given medical orders to work from home were pressured to come into the office and that after air test results came back “clean” some employees were asked to remove protective face masks they brought with them to the office. One team member said she began wearing scarves around her nose and mouth.

Three of the plaintiffs resigned due to the lack of accommodation for their health issues, and one has been on unpaid medical leave for the past year, according to the complaint.

The complaint seeks economic and punitive damages based on violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Employment and Housing Act, as well as nonpayment of wages and waiting time penalties.

Barulich Dugoni & Suttman did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.