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First, we had the complaints from some that when they took industrial action employers "docked" wages. Nowhere else would people withdraw their labour and still expect such actions to have no cost.

Now we are told that it is unacceptable for employers to keep us to our contracted notice period ("My employer is holding me to ransom for RAE", Opinion, July 6).

The academic contract is not like slavery - as those outside higher education realise, we still enjoy relatively generous terms of employment. Until we act like adults rather than spoilt children we will never regain the respect many of us feel our profession deserves.

Christopher May
Lancaster University