Flexible working likely to be rejected?

[Lime8]

Just had a very informal chat on phone with HR and when I mentioned return to work in August they said that going to 3 days a week would likely not be allowed as "there are too many part timers already".

Surely that is not a valid reason for rejection?! It seems really unfair. I feel really nervous about putting in a formal request.

I'm so annoyed, I've worked at this company for over 10 years.

Refusing flexible working can only be for one of the following reasons:

Employers can reject an application for any of the following reasons:

• extra costs that will damage the business
• the work can’t be reorganised among other staff
• people can’t be recruited to do the work
• flexible working will affect quality and performance
• the business won’t be able to meet customer demand
• there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
• the business is planning changes to the workforce

So whilst "there are too many part timers already" isn't a valid reason, they will probably just use one of the others instead. There is quite a bit of information on it here: www.gov.uk/flexible-working/overview