Exquisite melting moment

An open letter to those universities deducting 1/260th from the salaries of those who went on the one-day strike on November 19.

Dear vice chancellors, I am delighted to see that with your announcement that 1/260th of the salaries of AUT members going on strike recently will be deducted from incomes, you have, like the Government, finally committed yourselves to a pro-family position. In future, I assume that, unless overtime is paid, no weekend working will be expected. This, I am overjoyed to say, has the following implications for those of us who wish to spend more time with our families: * open days will no longer be held on Saturdays, if they are held at all * exam timetables will be adjusted so that no one is expected to mark exam scripts over weekends * those of us who travel abroad on university business will no longer be expected to abandon our families over Saturday nights in order to obtain cheaper flights * allowances will be made (in promotion and remuneration competitions) for poorer records of conference attendance and paper presentation as weekends cease to be available for the last-minute preparations required by the unpredictable demands made upon us.

I also assume that implicit in the notion of an industry-style five-day week is the return of the lunch hour, which was stolen from many of us some years back with more damaging results (in terms of health, internal university communications and, of course, family life) than is generally realised. Once more we shall be able to read Homes and Gardens in the senior common room and discuss DIY projects! (Please provide maps with the SCR indicated by an arrow.) I further assume that the new pro-family policy of the universities means that those among you who wish to make us work through the Easter school holidays in the interests of genuine "semesterisation" have grasped its moral implications at last.

I know that some people think that this is just macho personnel management, and I have to admit that it is grist to their mill to introduce it just before Christmas (a Christian festival of special importance to children which takes place in late December; you'll probably find the dates in your diaries; people normally give things rather than take them away). But I am sure the timing was an oversight: I know, from expertise in reading diplomatic signals developed over many years, that you are just old softies deep down and that, secretly, you are promoting a pro-family policy.

G. R. Berridge, Professor of international politics, director of the Centre for the Study of Diplomacy, University of Leicester