Conflict management scenario

You have been contacted by the Human Resources Manager at Head Office, asking for you to look into resolving a conflict with a member of your team. Rachel, the team member has, until several months ago, been a high performing member of the team. She has won the achiever award twice in the 12 months since she joined Bounce Fitness. In addition to the bonus payments, she has regularly worked overtime - sometimes an additional three hours after her day shift and eight hours every second Saturday. In the last two months, Rachel's performance has declined. Her personal records indicates that she has used most of her sick leave in the last two months. She has not achieved her KPI targets for the last six weeks. Several team members have expressed concern that Rachel seems less friendly than usual and has snapped at you as her Team leader, on a number of occasions.

You have organised a meeting with Rachel to try to understand what is going on with her. It didn't take long before Rachel explained that she was really annoyed as she had not been asked to work overtime in more than two months. The other members of the team were still working their usual overtime, and in Rachel's opinion, she was the only one to have her hours cut. You explained that a few months ago you were asked to give her a reference for a real estate agent as she had applied for a lease on a new apartment. During that conversation you became aware that Rachel was a single mother. You decided that she would be better off looking after her child rather than paying for childcare - and that not working Saturday would give her much more time for her family.

After that conversation, Rachel had contacted Human Resources and said that she had been discriminated against - she wants her overtime reinstated and she wants compensation for the hours she missed out on. Rachel also believes that her privacy was breached. Rachel has told a number of team members that you discriminate against single mothers.

Questions:

1. What are the key workplace policies and procedures that are relevant to the issue to be addressed? Write the name of the policy or procedure and how it's linked to the issue.
2. What advice would you give to the team member about the immediate steps to be taken to ensure that the issue doesn't escalate further?
3. Describe the strategies and action/s you would take to support the team member in managing this conflict.