Temple College Sick-Depart Coverage Compelled Librarian Latanya Jenkins to Work With Lethal Breast Most cancers

A Temple University librarian who died of breast cancer was forced to choose between her job and her health because of the university’s strict sick leave policy, her friends and colleagues told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Latanya Jenkins, 45, died in April 2020 but did her best to work almost every day until her death as she was pressured by the university not to take extra time. “Nobody can know what could have happened if she had worked for a more caring organization,” said Fobazi Ettarh, one of her co-workers. “They drove them into the ground.”

Temple grants employees ten sick days a year, but begins disciplining workers once they have used six days. You can face unpaid suspensions and risk being fired. Jenkins eventually secured vacation under the Family Medical Leave Act, but by that point she was already seriously ill. “I just want to walk without extreme pain,” she wrote in a text message after the cancer spread to her spine. Temple did not comment on Jenkins’ circumstances, but said the coverage of their situation was “based on rumors and guesses rather than facts.” In Jenkins’ memory, a GoFundMe was set up to fund a scholarship for college students and librarians at a young age.

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