Transfer to any London mail centre?

[McSplodge]

Hi everyone!

I work in processing and am moving to London soon and wanted to transfer to one of the London mail centres, preferably Mount Pleasant. I sent my transfer request form to Sheffield the day after the bad news about the 2 closures was announced. I've received an Email back from the recruitment team saying there are no full time live vacancies at Mount Pleasant but they'll send me a letter when one comes up.

I started trying to find addresses for other MCs in London so I could submit a new transfer form and stumbled upon this website! I've read about the relocation offer for workers at the 2 centres set to close, and about how MP plans to reduce their full time staff members by roughly 50%. This is the first I've heard about this, and doesn't sound too good for someone looking for a transfer into London.

What are my chances here? Anyone who knows the situation at MP, am I unlikely to get a transfer any time soon, if ever? If full time jobs are being cut, they're highly unlikely to take anyone else on and I can't afford to move to London with only a part time contract, so am I wasting my time waiting for a transfer? I don't plan to stay at Royal Mail forever, but I'll need to keep my job with them for the first year or so at least. It's unlikely I'll find a job that pays as well as Royal Mail that easily.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Should I sit tight to see what happens, apply at other mail centres, or cut my losses and look for a new job in London?
Thanks for reading.

[Judgee]

Really don't think you will have much luck getting a London transfer. Chances are there will be compulsary redundancies when 2 of the 7 London mail centres close. They will have to try relocate over 700 workers, or get many to take volunary redundancy. Either way there's going to be too many people for the few jobs available!

[McSplodge]

Really don't think you will have much luck getting a London transfer. Chances are there will be compulsary redundancies when 2 of the 7 London mail centres close. They will have to try relocate over 700 workers, or get many to take volunary redundancy. Either way there's going to be too many people for the few jobs available!

Hi Judgee

Thanks for your response mate. I had a word with a rep today who said the mail centre closure plan would take about 2-3 years at least, so would the fact that I've already submitted my request put me at the front of the queue or would the people being relocated from closing mail centres take priority? I don't mean that to sound insensitive to anyone who will be affected by the closures so I hope it doesn't come across that way!

Has anyone involved already asked to move elsewhere or been offered a spot somewhere else? I have no idea how RM are handling the relocation of staff because it's not something that's been discussed with us at all. Today was the first I'd heard about the 50% cut in full time workers at MP.

Would I stand a better chance if I was willing to take a part time job and then fill in the rest with overtime? Can anyone in MP tell me what the overtime situation is like at the moment? I'm also aware there's a weighting supplement for London staff to meet the higher cost of living in London. Would I be right in assuming that the weighting would be pro-rata? So if I took an 18 hour contract and made the additional 20 hours or so up in overtime, I'd only be paid a weighting bonus on the basic 18? Relying on overtime is less than ideal as there's no guarantee it'll always/ever be available.

My rep said the best thing I could do would be to send in another transfer form listing all London MC's as possible transfer locations, but he seems to think HWDC would be my best shot now, it's a bit far out but knowing what I know now I'd consider it even though it'd be an hour or more commute each way on the tube!

[walkon]

Can I ask what area you will be moving from (you don't have to be too specific) as this is something I've considered in the past?

[McSplodge]

Can I ask what area you will be moving from (you don't have to be too specific) as this is something I've considered in the past?

Hi Walkon
I don't mind telling you I'm hoping to move from PL mail centre into central London. I quite stupidly only listed Mount Pleasant as my transfer office so now think it might be better to drop another form in listing the 5 largest centres in London.

Does anyone know the 5 largest, or most likely to take staff on?

[POSTMAN]

McSplodge,read the link below,there is no way you're going to get a transfer to a London MC,sorry mate,but keep trying and good luck.
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 26&t=35123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Where are you going to be living,you might get lucky with a DO.

[McSplodge]

McSplodge,read the link below,there is no way you're going to get a transfer to a London MC,sorry mate,but keep trying and good luck.
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 26&t=35123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Where are you going to be living,you might get lucky with a DO.

Hi Postman

Thanks for your response. I read through that thread and it scares the s**t out of me!
I was originally going to be close to family in Wood Green N22, but then thought that I might have a better shot at HWDC so I started looking at Ealing so the daily commute wouldn't be such a strain.

I'll drop a form in today and then just forget about it I think, it's clearly a long shot now so in the meantime I'll have to start searching for other jobs, if a transfer miraculously comes up then great, but from what I've read it wouldn't be a good idea to hold my breath! It's a shame it's come to this. The security of moving to London with a job already in place provided a great comfort, it must be 10 times worse for the people in the mail centres set to close. The fact that everybody found out from Sky/BBC news instead of RM management is an absolute disgrace IMO.

Thanks again for your response.

[spurs1959]

Hi everyone!

I work in processing and am moving to London soon and wanted to transfer to one of the London mail centres, preferably Mount Pleasant. I sent my transfer request form to Sheffield the day after the bad news about the 2 closures was announced. I've received an Email back from the recruitment team saying there are no full time live vacancies at Mount Pleasant but they'll send me a letter when one comes up.

I started trying to find addresses for other MCs in London so I could submit a new transfer form and stumbled upon this website! I've read about the relocation offer for workers at the 2 centres set to close, and about how MP plans to reduce their full time staff members by roughly 50%. This is the first I've heard about this, and doesn't sound too good for someone looking for a transfer into London.

What are my chances here? Anyone who knows the situation at MP, am I unlikely to get a transfer any time soon, if ever? If full time jobs are being cut, they're highly unlikely to take anyone else on and I can't afford to move to London with only a part time contract, so am I wasting my time waiting for a transfer? I don't plan to stay at Royal Mail forever, but I'll need to keep my job with them for the first year or so at least. It's unlikely I'll find a job that pays as well as Royal Mail that easily.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Should I sit tight to see what happens, apply at other mail centres, or cut my losses and look for a new job in London?
Thanks for reading.

Just to let you know with the pending closure of south east london and east london there will be a surplus of staff and mount pleasant are over staffed the bottom line is north london inward work moves from east london into the mount but none of the staff can go because the mount will be over staffed, basically there ain't enough jobs to go round.
But take it from me you don't want to go to the mount I would rather take vr myself it is a s***hole.

[McSplodge]

Just to let you know with the pending closure of south east london and east london there will be a surplus of staff and mount pleasant are over staffed the bottom line is north london inward work moves from east london into the mount but none of the staff can go because the mount will be over staffed, basically there ain't enough jobs to go round.
But take it from me you don't want to go to the mount I would rather take vr myself it is a s***hole.

Why is MP a $hithole? I've never been there so I have no idea myself, but to be honest, $hithole or not, I need a job and I'll gladly take one at the Mount if one came up but it doesn't seem like it will. I got another form to send to Sheffield tomorrow listing HWDC, Greenford and a couple of delivery office's as possible transfer places. If it works out it works out, if not I'll have to leave Royal Mail. Would it be of any use to include a cover letter saying "I'll take an FT job anywhere"?

[Martin Walsh]

Sorry to disapoint you that you will not get a transfer to either the Mount , South or East London mail centres. If Royal Mail`s plan goes ahead and the CWU are opposing it as it will lead to complusory redundancies.

East London is due to close within 12 months and South London within 18 months.East London will have a full time surplus of 80% and East London will have a surplus of 59%.

The Mount is reducing from 944 full time processing jobs to 410 a 57% reduction.

It is not true that there are seven mail centres in London. There are only three and Royal Mail are not just closing two there are reducing the one that is staying open by half its normal staffing levels.

You may have more of an opportunity to transfer to HWDC but it is not very accesiable from London by public transport.

[britwrit]

Not to go against the flow but you might have an outside chance with HWDC. I'm there now and we have literally hundreds of vacancies (so much so that some Christmas casuals are actually being given fixed term contracts.) It really depends how liberal Royal Mail is going to be with EVRs when it comes to the two mail centres that are closing. Seeing as how few people transfered from Mount Pleasant recently, you might be able to slip through the cracks.

[vince]

HWDC IS YOUR BEST BET

[McSplodge]

Thanks for your replies everyone! I sent another transfer form to Sheffield last week, I listed HWDC as my first choice, also put down a few DO's in London just for the fun of it! Haven't heard anything yet but fingers crossed. If they're offering full contracts to casual staff that looks good for me at least! I thought that if RM wanted to recruit they had to look at internal requests first before hiring new staff?

Britwrit, can I ask if you are still paid London Weighting as far out as HWDC? I don't know if you work full or part time, but do you know roughly how much a full time staff member takes home a week?

[Martin Walsh]

NO HWDC does not recieve London Weighting.

[McSplodge]

NO HWDC does not recieve London Weighting.

That may explain why so few people were willing to make the move out to HWDC then.

I can't afford to live in central London and commute out to Heathrow every day for a standard wage. Depending on what that wage may be, I think this is probably the end of my days with Royal Mail.