Dear Deepa,
Please do not get confused between roles of HR & reporting manager.
The issue you have described indicates that the main concern is the leave deduction of weekend. If the issue was of leave sanction or Monday, then it was a reporting manager duty. But since the issue arise due to HR policy of weekend leave, then it is HR manager responsibility.
The decision you took to deny the employee request, was correct here as per the company policy, & you should not directly refer the employee to the director in such cases. You can just say this is the company policy & that’s it….
Now, if you want to help the employee from humanitarian view, you can ask him to refer this request to his line manager, as this case needs ‘management discretion’. The line manager can decide to take the case further up to director level if required, & then you will get intimation from management to cancel this weekend leave. OR may be he will also just deny the request pointing out the company policy.
This process is generally followed for all other discretion cases (like extra monitory advances, additional purchases, additional expenses, salary & position negotiations, etc) where business & money is involved. Why not for leaves?
In case employee directly goes to director to complain, bypassing his line manager, then at least he is not suggested to do so from HR…
The word "management discretion" is quite tricky & the level at which this discretion is authorized is not defined. As HR manager, you may have authority for decision, but do you have authority for discretion?
I don't think HR manager has this authority to go against the written HR policies, unless there is an emergency. This is the difference between reporting manager & HR Manager.
Hope this helps... !!
Best Regards,
Amod Bobade.