Sunshine bank PLC is a well-reputed leading private bank in Sri Lanka which operates more than 150 branches all over the country. It has a well-organized Human Resource Department, including a separate training and development division. The company is endowed with a separate motto for the HR Department: "Empowering the people through equity and equality". The company has been awarded multiple times for its best HR practices.

Matara Branch

Mrs Perera is the Manager of the Matara Branch, and she was appointed to this post three months before. She has worked as the Assistant Manager of the Ja-Ela Branch for the last five years. As a result of her promotion, she was recently transferred to the Marata branch. Nevertheless, she is severely stressed now since her hometown is in Ja Ela, and she has been detached from her family members.

Incident

Seven banking assistants work in the branch's front office, including four ladies and three gents. All the ladies have been married and are blessed with babies. They all reside at their homes situated within 8 kilometres of the branch. Since they have worked for the organization for more than 5 years, they could be transferred to the closest branch of their houses during the last year. The three gentlemen are very young and started their career in this Bank from this branch last year as their first appointment. All of them are very young and not married. All the gents have been accommodated within the branch premises since their hometowns are at Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee.

At one particular weekend, all of them have requested personal leave for the following immediate Monday since the next immediate Tuesday is a public holiday. Then, they all can get leave for four consecutive days. The Manager can grant the maximum number of leave for four members, and three of them should work by maintaining the minimum staff requirements for a day. Mrs Perera asked all these seven workers to deliberate and devise a feasible solution. All the attempts they got for the discussions failed, and the problem ultimately came to the Manager's determination.

Ladies' Arguments:

Ladies argued that they needed the leave due to the following reasons.

- They are ladies and deserve a priority

- They are married and need to look into domestic chores

- They are mature and need to give priority to the seniority

- They have worked in other places during the last 5 years and have already sacrificed a lot

Gents' Arguments:

Gents argued that they needed the leave due to the following reasons.

- Their hometowns are far from the branch, and they cannot go home during weekends as two days should be allocated for travelling to go and come back. They have not gone home during the last four months.

- They argued that all the other ladies go home every day since their homes are close.

- They wanted to see their parents and girlfriends since they had not met in the last four months.

- Since all of them are in the same position, even if having different years of experience, a priority cannot be assigned to the seniority.

Manager's Decision:

After considering all the above arguments, finally, Mrs Perera decided to grant leave for all the ladies and instructed the gents to be there in the branch. She said that she was also not available on the same date and going home to be with her family members. She said the following points.

- Ladies should be given a priority since they have more family commitments.

- Seniority should be considered; even one day, seniority is important.

- Gents are too young and need to sacrifice more.

- Gents are not married and have no family commitments.

- She said a statement like this "What the purpose of giving leave to them, they are young guys know."

Finally, the gents had to be there in the branch. Later, they raised their voice by saying this was unfair and complained to the HR Department. That created a very unwelcome situation in the branch and questions about their best HR practices. You are the external HR consultant of this organization.

Question

The company has requested you provide a comprehensive report on this scenario. You are required to focus on the following but not be limited to:

1. Address the theories of diversity and inclusivity by focusing on gender, age, etc.

2. Evaluate the given arguments of the ladies and gents in this Bank by incorporating your opinions

3. Critically evaluate the Manager's decision by addressing the pros and cons

4. Role of the T and D division and HR Department of this organization in this regard

5. All the other related points which are necessary for this comprehensive report.