Help with transferring to a new delivery office?

[josephemi23]

Hi, not sure if this is the right section for this post but I was hoping a union rep may be able to give me some advice.

I'm looking to transfer to a delivery office that is almost 200 miles away from the one I currently work at for family reasons and need to transfer ASAP. The problem that I have is I've only been in the role for 22 weeks and after applying internally for a transfer, was told I had to have completed 26 weeks to be able to apply for a transfer.

Because of the urgency of moving to the new location, I just can't afford to wait that 4 weeks and then a further 4+ weeks for a transfer to be done.

Is there any way of transferring before the 26 weeks or is it a strict no and I'd be better off handing in my notice?

Also, if I were to hand in my notice, would I be able to apply to a new delivery office after I've moved (obviously through the new applicant process) or are there restrictions on how soon you can work for Royal Mail again after leaving?


Thanks

[a.day21]

As someone who has transferred twice in the past few years (once within the past 3 months), I can tell you now that the official transferring process is pointless - even if you had been there for long enough to transfer, all they do upon accepting your application is pass it on to the DOMs of the two offices and tell them to arrange a date between them for you to move. If they can't find a suitable date and this process isn't completed within a month, the transfer essentially gets shelved.

The best way to get a transfer is to completely skip the middle-man. Contact the DOM of the office you want to move to (your union rep or a manager should be able to get their number from the internal database) and then get your DOM to contact them. If your DOM doesn't want to play ball, which they usually don't because they then have to find someone to replace you, the best thing you can do is get your union rep to have a word and put a bit of pressure on them. After that, it basically depends on what the two DOMs want to do.

On the whole, transferring can be a bit of a pain - you are basically relying on both DOMs cooperating and emailing each other fairly quickly, which isn't much of a guarantee. Don't expect much luck moving if there isn't actually a vacant position at the office you want to move to either. Also, DOMs sometimes ask you to drop your hours in order to secure a transfer, so be prepared for this possibility.

[feduppostie]

could your office not arrange to loan you to the other office until you have been here long enough to transfer?

[josephemi23]

Thanks for your replies

I've spoken to the DOM of the office I want to transfer to and there is a vacancy at the moment. He said he will contact my current DOM and try to arrange the transfer that way for me to skip the HR part of the process as suggested!

Fingers crossed they can arrange it quickly between them both but if not, I will use the suggestion of asking my union rep to apply pressure.

It seems a little long winded to have the internal transfer system in place when it can be done between the managers without needing the extra step in the process to me!

[felixdevis333]

How did you get the contact details of dom

[BenacreNick]

Joseph, the transfer list is probably there for a reason.

[mwalker88]

You're probably better off checking out other jobs in the city your moving to.

Government, local council, local large businesses will all have job vacancies with zero experience needed.

Most outside the "delivery sector" will be much better working conditions in every way possible!

Just my tuppence

Good luck!