I wanted to find out if I was wrongful terminated / discriminated. When applying for a position with a construction company, the references I listed were contacted. Two of the three references stated, that I was a hard worker, but had a problem with tardiness. I was hired anyway. During my 90 day review, my boss talked to me about my tardiness and told me to try harder. During my employment I was diagnosed with Grave's disease, also know as Hyperthyroidism. I was given thyroid and heart medication. The list of side effects includes tiredness and insomnia. Many mornings because of this I would over sleep but still go in to work. There were days that I just couldn't make it, which averaged out to be one day a month. The day before my one year anniversary, I was told my employer that he understand about my illness, but because of my tardiness and time off he could not longer work with me. He also appealed my unemployment, stating poor work performance. The appeal judge found that he did not have any evidence to support this, giving me the win. Do I have a legal case against him?

I wanted to find out if I was wrongful terminated / discriminated. When applying for a position with a construction company, the references I listed were contacted. Two of the three references stated, that I was a hard worker, but had a problem with tardiness. I was hired anyway. During my 90 day review, my boss talked to me about my tardiness and told me to try harder. During my employment I was diagnosed with Grave's disease, also know as Hyperthyroidism. I was given thyroid and heart medication. The list of side effects includes tiredness and insomnia. Many mornings because of this I would over sleep but still go in to work. There were days that I just couldn't make it, which averaged out to be one day a month. The day before my one year anniversary, I was told my employer that he understand about my illness, but because of my tardiness and time off he could not longer work with me. He also appealed my unemployment, stating poor work performance. The appeal judge found that he did not have any evidence to support this, giving me the win. Do I have a legal case against him?
Your employer didn't terminate you for your illness, you were terminated for excessive tardiness and absenteeism. Since you were with your employer less than 1 year your job didn't have any protections under FMLA. Because you couldn't do the essentials functions of the job (Number 1 is to show up on time every day) the employer was within their rights to terminate you.

It's doubtful. Contrary to what a frightening number of people believe, winning unemployment benefits does NOT indicate an illegal termination. The unemployment commission does not determine the legality of a termination, nor are they charged with doing so; they are ONLY concerned with whether or not the termination qualifies or disqualifies you for unemployment benefits under your state's laws. The vast majority of people collecting unemployment were terminated legally. It is legal to terminate someone for poor performance even if undocumented; it is also legal to terminate someone for excessive tardiness and absences.

It is also untrue, despite what again a frightening number of people believe, that you cannot legally be fired if the tardies and absences are for a medical reason. Even assuming that the ADA applies, and we do not know if it does (that's not something that can be determined on a message board), the employer is not required to excuse more tardies and absences than they would offer a non-disabled employee. You are still responsible for maintaining your work at standard and to abide by company policy, including the attendance policy. The ONLY way this is going to be an illegal termination would be IF the ADA applies AND IF the conditions of your employment, your job duties and the resources of the employer are such that allowing a flexible schedule (to allow for the tardies) and extra days off not allowed to other employees would constitute a reasonable accomodation. While not impossible, it is unlikely that this is going to be the case. Multiple courts have ruled that attendance is an essential function of most jobs, particularly since you evidently had a tardiness problem with previous employers.

If you believe that you should have been granted additional time off over and above the rest of the staff as an accomodation you can contact the EEOC, but I think it unlikely that you have a viable claim.