Do I Have A Case Under The Ada (or Fmla) ?

Location: California.

I am unsure whether or not I have a case under the ADA. I have been jointly employed in California for 3 years. My primary employer has only handled paychecks, while I have exclusively worked at secondary employers location and have been supervised and had my day to day activities directed exclusively by secondary employer. My secondary employer refused to speak to me about accommodations for my documented disability, directing me to speak only to my primary employer about anything related to that. Whenever my primary employer would send my accommodation suggestions to secondary, they would deny it, citing “essential job functions are not subject to revision.” Importantly, most of the accommodations they denied already exist for other employees in my same position (like reduced class loads and case loads). My main request was flexible scheduling on days I was having symptoms, but they denied that. In my opinion, this would have been a very easy and viable solution, and would not have caused any undue hardship.

At this time, my secondary employer began giving negative performance reviews about me to primary employer, without giving me any indication they were doing so (I never received a negative performance review from them) I requested a meeting with both primary and secondary to address these inconsistencies, and they agreed to it. However over a month passed without the meeting taking place. Suddenly I receive a letter from my primary employer with a list of false claims about how I am unable to fulfill the essential functions of the job, and telling me that I was being reassigned to a different location in 3 days, and will no longer be working with secondary employer. When I requested to address these claims against me, and mentioned that I have documented proof of satisfactorily performing the essential functions of the job, I was told my secondary employer was “not satisfied with [my] performance and was not amenable to a meeting.”

Do I have a case?

It is important to note that I was granted FMLA leave a year earlier, however my secondary's dissatisfaction with my leave caused me to seek further accommodation to alleviate their dissatisfaction. However they refused to talk to me about this, and continued to feel dissatisfied when I used my FMLA. When my FMLA exhausted, I was told the same leave arrangement would continue to be granted to me as an accommodation. However secondary employer continued to be very dissatisfied with this and cited my attendance as one of the issues with performing my job.