EXAM writers at the University of Cambridge are launching a compensation claim after being forced to sign new contracts with lower pay.

The 12-strong group works for Cambridge University Press & Assessment (CUP&A), a leading academic publishing house that is part of the university.

Today, the Society of Authors (SoA) trade union said that their historic contracts had incorrectly failed to categorised them as workers, so they had been denied rights such as fair holiday pay for up to three decades.