Below is the wayforward agreement that details what must happen for a resign to be triggered. In simple terms all units that have been through a DM revision will have met the criteria for a resign.
It makes sense that you wouldn't start the resign until you have a working duty set phase 5 & 6, but after that your unit should have moved forward with the resign.
I do understand that a resign causes many issues, but us local reps can only apply the national agreements that the membership has voted on and agreed. The problem seems to stem from the management teams that don't want the resign and tend to put all kinds of spin on what is considered major change.
If people don't like the response from the local CWU then you should raise this with the branch sec or chair and HQ, but also remember that royal mail also have a duty to abide and apply all national agreements, so raising this via letter with your DOM or HR team will get the ball moving.
JUSTIFICATION FOR AN OFFICE/UNIT RE-SIGN
4. In order to protect service to the customer, reduce disruption to our employees and prevent any negative
impact on the continuity of job skills and local knowledge, full office re-signs will normally only take
place in the context of major change.
5. Section 16.2 of the Way of Working Agreement defines "Major Change" as:
.the relocation or merger of units
.a significant process alteration arising from automated working or reshaping of the pipeline
.delivery revisions, which involve significant re-plotting of walks or significant restructuring of attendance
patterns (e.g. full time/part time mix, five-day weeks, "longs and shorts" or nights plus a first delivery, where
they are agreed).
For a re-selection exercise to be considered the extent of such a change must be that it has a significant
impact (in content and/or attendance times) on over 1/3 of the jobs in the unit. (New jobs should be included
in this number).
6. While it is not possible to be totally prescriptive as to what constitutes "significant", cases will need to be
judged on their merits, using the attached "Guidelines" (Annex 1). The test should be that it could be argued
that, to all intents and purposes, the job is no longer the one previously signed for.
7. The logical approach is to first confirm the number of unchanged jobs, using the Guidelines. For there to be
a full office re-sign the number of unchanged jobs must be less than two-thirds of the total (including
reserves). In these circumstances, the facility of a re-sign will be agreed with the changed and new duties
being jointly identified with the appropriate CWU representative, as specified in the "Procedure" section of
Annex 1. (The decision tree at Annex 2 illustrates where an Office/Unit re-sign is appropriate).
8. There will be a further review of these arrangements in the light of working experience, to ensure that the
objectives set out in paragraph 4. (above) are being met.
Annex 1
AGREED GUIDELINES FOR OFFICE/UNIT RE-SIGN
These guidelines have been produced to ensure that the re-sign procedure is applied in accordance with the
principles contained within the Way of Working Agreement, Section 16: Resourcing Jobs During Major Change.
The guidelines will be published and joint briefings will be held to inform staff of the re-sign procedure and the
location of the Guidelines. This process will be subject to regular review with a Formal Joint Review after 12
months of deployment to identify whether it has maintained the reduced level of full office re-signs, while still
affording employees reasonable opportunities for re-selection in the event of major change.
CHANGE CRITERIA
The following criteria should be applied to determine which duties have been significantly changed and are
proper to be included in the re-sign:
.the duty/work content has changed by at least 25% e.g. from Mech. to manual or vice versa
.the duty has changed from indoor work to outdoor work or vice versa (staff employed on loading
bay/platform duties will be classed as outdoor)
.the shift or skill allowance applicable to a duty has changed, either up or down
.there has been a change in the duty holder's opportunity to sign for Scheduled Attendance, e.g. change in
driving content to over four hours
.the attendance start or finish time has changed by 30 minutes or more. So that the duty holder's personal or
domestic circumstances prevent them from attending at the new time or finishing at the new time-
.new duties should also be added to those identified as significantly changed, when considering whether there
has been a third of the total duties affected.
PROCESS
This activity should take place prior to the re-sign commencing.
HOME ADDRESSES
Each individual is responsible for ensuring that the record of their home address is correct.
SENIORITY
The seniority details of all employees will be published and circulated to all individuals including those on longterm
sick, etc.
A time scale will be agreed for individuals to raise any questions that they may have in respect of their seniority
and all queries must be dealt within this limit. Any individual who fails to raise a problem within the agreed
timescale will have the seniority as originally published.
Where questions relating to seniority are raised they will be cleared prior to the final list being agreed and
published.
LEAVE/PROXY
Employees will be requested to nominate a proxy if they are due to be on leave during the period of the re-sign.
PROVISIONS
1. All new or significant altered duties will be advertised in the re-sign. These duties will be signed for on the
basis of seniority, with due regard to exceptional/special circumstances.
2. Individuals whose duties are unchanged, may opt to retain them, but will also have the option of applying for
any of the jobs involved in the re-sign. (See paragraph 2.3).
3. Defined specialist duties should not be included in re-signs because they are resourced as per Section 15 of
the Way of Working Agreement.
4. On completion of the resign, part-timers will be able to apply for full time jobs that are left vacant by full time
employees, contracted to 41.5 or 40 hours. Exceptionally, part timers who have been in their current role for
less than 12 months will also be able to apply. Full time employees must not be left without a job as a result of
a resign.
5. Employees should not be included in a re-sign unless they have completed 12 months on the previous duty
they selected. The only exceptions to this are where:
.Their duty has significantly altered as defined in "Change Criteria" .New duties, above the previous template,
have been advertised.
.The individual was placed into their current duty on appointment or due to consequential vacancy, following a
previous re-sign.
.Less than 12 months have elapsed since the last Office/Unit re-sign.
.For specialist jobs, for which the applicant has been trained.
.As a result of serious personal or domestic reasons.
6. Where there is surplus following the completion of a re-sign, the provisions of the "Managing the \Surplus
Framework Agreement" must be observed.
7. Where there are likely to be high numbers of vacancies/consequential vacancies, remaining at the conclusion
of a re-sign, the planning process should be actioned to achieve the required resource in the same timescale as
the re-sign wherever possible.
PROCEDURE
WEEKS ONE AND TWO
1. PREPARATION FOR RE-SIGN
1.1 Obtain agreed new duty structure, including new SA slots, and updated seniority list, confirm
and agree with appropriate CWU Representative.
1.2 Identify and agree significantly changed and new duties jointly with the appropriate, CWU Representative
(See Annex 1).
1.3 Publicise re-sign and agreed guidelines (Annex 1).
1.4 Confirm address list of employees.
1.5 Identify likely absentees (AL, training, etc.) and ask for proxy nominees (see Week 4). All
reasonable efforts should be made to contact employees on long-term absence. It should be noted that this
should have been pre-planned well in advance due to the length of period employees may be on leave.
1.6 Book appointments for manager and CWU representative to finalise allocation (see Week 5).
1.7 It is recognised that an SA allocation will be required following an Office/Unit re-sign and this will be
carried out within an agreed timescale, following the outcome of the selection of duties.
WEEK THREE
2. INITIAL OPTIONS EXERCISE
2.1 Agree names of individuals whose job has ceased or altered significantly in attendance times or
content, with the appropriate CWU Representative and notify them. Confirm to them that their duty will be
included in the re-sign and that they should take part. Ask them to indicate if they have any special personal
circumstances, which may need to be considered. (STOL1 Letter)
2.2 Special/exceptional circumstances as described in 2.1 should be considered jointly and once a decision has
been made on whether special arrangements will be required, these should be notified as appropriate to the
Resourcing Unit.
2.3 The Nationally Agreed Standard Options form should be sent to home addresses of all employees not due
to take part in the re-sign, asking them to state whether they wish to remain on their (unchanged) duty or
whether they are interested in signing for one of the advertised jobs, or wish to apply for any SA slots. (STPL2
Letter) Once the replies are received, employees should be sent the STPL3 Letter.
2.4 On receipt of the option forms sent out under paragraph 2.3, all of the significantly altered jobs and new
jobs in the resign will be advertised.
DUTY SELECTION
All individuals included will be requested to return their selection form within one week of receipt. At the
conclusion of the selection/allocation of duties, individuals who have failed to respond to the request for them
to return their duty selection form without an acceptable reason shall have a duty allocated to them. The
Resourcing Unit Manager or the manager responsible for the allocation will allocate a duty that mirrors as near
as possible the attendance pattern/shift allowances and earnings ability of their previous duty. The final
outcome of the re-sign will be displayed to all employees.
TIMETABLE
The aim should be to complete the re-sign in the timescale set out below, in "Procedure". Where it is possible
to conclude this process in less than 5 weeks, both parties should seek to do so.
WEEK FOUR
3. PREFERENCE EXERCISE
On receipt of replies from 2.1 and 2.3:
3.1 Send a Duty Selection form to employees whose jobs have ceased or significantly changed and
those employees who have expressed a wish to take part in the re-sign, or their nominated proxy (see
3.2/3.3). The individuals' seniority number should be indicated on the selection form and it should be stated
that the final allocation will be based on that seniority. (STDSL4 Letter and EDSF2 Form)
3.2 Employees who know they will be absent when the forms are sent out, may nominate a proxy to select on
their behalf
3.3 Employees, or their nominated proxy, should select a number of duties in preference order. The number of
selections required will depend on the size of the re-sign and will be locally agreed. The form should be
returned to the Resourcing Unit within one week.
3.4 Employees who do not return the preference form or to nominate a proxy will be allocated a job in
seniority order (see paragraph 4.3).
WEEK FIVE
4. DUTY ALLOCATION
On receipt of replies from 3.3:
4.1 The Resourcing Unit Manager should allocate the duties by choice, in seniority order.
4.2 The only exception o this will be where it has been agreed that there are personal circumstances
that need TO be taken into account (in accordance with the Way of Working Agreement, Section 16.4, third
paragraph).
4.3 At the conclusion of the selection/allocation of duties, individuals who have failed to return their duty
selection form without an acceptable reason should have a duty allocated to them This allocation will mirror,
as near as possible, the attendance pattern/shift allowances and earnings ability of their previous duty.
4.4 This allocation should then be passed to the CWU Representative for confirmation and displayed to all
employees.
4.5 Where employees have queries regarding their allocation, they will be seen face-to-face by their
manager, so that they can be dealt with quickly. They may be accompanied by a CWU Representative, if they
so wish.
5. ADDITIONAL POINTS
5.1 If there is local agreement regarding linked units, e.g. a delivery office housed in a Mail Centre that is
running a re-sign exercise at the same time they may indicate three choices on the options form, i.e.
.keep existing job
.take part in re-sign in own unit
.take part in re-sign in linked units.
No other form of cross-functional re-sign is permissible.
some people said we had a vote on letting the union fix the duties but that was just after December and yet we still have not had resign and it does not look like we will get one either. i know that someone made a complaint to the area rep and nothing happened about it 
but what really f#### me off is that there was a min repick of vacant duties but not one of these duties was p/t even though there is a least 10 duties 
no wonder so many of us want to leave the union. its a joke that this has been allowed to happen the union does not give a f#### about the p/t staff in this office
.But what is worse is how the rep is looking after his own and leaving the rest of us in the s###.His family have and the other reps have got good duties but the rest of us can not sign for the duty's.To give you an example i would be able to sign for the floater to the factories as p/t but there is a full time postman on it yet there are full time jobs for him to do. 
But thank you wish all reps were like you 