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  Employers need to be aware and start putting procedures into place for the new Flexible Work legislation, which becomes law in April 2003. Employers will have to follow a new statutory procedure for dealing with requests for flexible working from parents of children under the age of 6 or disabled children under 18. The new procedure is, An employee can make one request a year. If accepted by the employer, it will mean a permanent change to the contract of employment. Employers must arrange a meeting to discuss the request with the within 28 days. At the meeting, the employee may be accompanies by a companion. Employer must write to the employee within 14 days of the meeting to either agree to the new work pattern together with a start date, or decline the request. If declined, then the employer must provide clear business grounds for doing so. The employee has 14 days to appeal their employer�s decision. (internal appeal) Dissatisfied employees can take their case to an Employment Tribunal, where the employer will have to demonstrate they have followed the procedure correctly.

The EEC has taken a decision to force the UK to fully implement the European Working Time directive. Britain has an opt-out until next January (Jan �03) for certain workers. In particular, white-collar staff and those who partly work unmeasured time, especially where there are no contractual hours. These employees also do not have to measure their rest breaks.  The opt-out, negotiated by Prime Minister John Major, is set to cease on 31st December 2002. The EC have given the Government until the end of May 2002 to toughen up the regulations; or face further action taken against it. The Government has not responded and will now be forced to implement the legislation in full by 1st January 2003. Employers who are thinking about Attendance Monitoring for their office staff should contact Tensor now. The Directive provides a fairly complex set of employment rules that govern the number of hours an employee can work which ultimately dictates the way all companies must operate. For example, to comply with the Directive, did you know that you need to provide time and attendance verification of working rules to ensure that?  Shift breaks are taken where more than 6 hours are worked. There are different rules for different categories of young workers Groups of employees working shifts have to be ensured a minimum rest period of 11 consecutive hours per 24 hours. Groups of employees working shifts have to be ensured a minimum rest period of 24 consecutive hours per 7 days.  Shifts for night work are limited to an average of 8 hours work per 24 hours for a defined reference period.  Weekly average (17 week average!) hours do not exceed 48 hours per 7 days for a definable reference period not greater than 4 month. (Annual leave and sickness are not included in this average calculation).  Tensor have complete systems that start from �1,495 and they all have special EEC Working Time Directive software to help you stay within the law.

  The Government has just announced that in future, any new UK Employment Legislation will be introduced on one of two implementation dates each year. These will be 6th April and 1st October. The purpose of this move is to make it easier for employers to plan ahead and prepare themselves for any new legislative changes, much of which these days comes from Brussels.  Tensor�s newsletters (Tips & Advice and Tensor News) will carry bullet points of any imminent changes well in advance of these two dates so that busy executives are reminded of any important laws that may affect them. If you haven�t yet signed up to receive the newsletters� you can do so now.

  Lightning Survey Small Business Edition the ultimate questionnaire and surveying software package can now be tried FREE (Limited to 500 responses). The two web sites www.lightningsurvey.co.uk (for United Kingdom users) and www.lightningsurvey.com (for USA & Rest of the world) provide a unique tool to enable you to build surveys online and view the results in real-time. You can use an unlimited number of Surveys and do not have to pay for the first 1,000 responses. There is also special introductory prices on annual registration fees for a limited period. The free trial is for all those who respond between 21/3/02 and 30/4/02. Details of the pricing is available from the site. Lightning Survey Ltd, part of the Tensor plc group of companies; have spent over � million pounds in developing the new product during its year and a half development cycle. 

  Part 12 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 dealing with corruption came into force in the UK on the 14th of February. The Act now means that any corrupt payment that would be unlawful in the UK is now illegal if it is paid abroad, even if the payment is legal in the country concerned.  There are potential difficulties in interpreting the new law however, and also practical problems in implementing it both for companies and government. Parliamentary time will have to be found to address these difficulties and for the wholesale reform of UK corruption law to take into account of  the Council of Europe’s Criminal and Civil Law Corruption Conventions which the UK is signatory to but has not yet ratified. In addition, as part of the OECD’s peer-review process, the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will be reviewed by OECD members – led by UK and France – in early March.

The European Commission has put forward proposals that would require temporary staff and agency workers to receive the same terms and conditions as permanent employees in the end-user company – including pay, pensions, holiday and other benefits. Currently in the UK, the primary employment relationship for agency staff is between the agency and the staff they employ. These proposals would force company�s who take on agency workers to afford them the same pay and benefits they give to their own staff.  A move which will obviously increase administrative costs and remove the incentive for using agency workers in the first places.  As the British and European leader in Time and Attendance and Access systems, Tensor have provided new features in the WinTA software to track, record and maintain compliance with the Work Time Directive. WinTA is the worlds first Smart Card Time & Attendance system that meets the requirements of the new legislation.

  Lightning Survey, the ultimate questionnaire and surveying software package was launched today simultaneously in the UK and the United States of America. The two web sites www.lightningsurvey.co.uk and www.lightningsurvey.com provide all types of organisations, Government departments and businesses with a unique tool to enable them to seek the views of a large number of people in the shortest possible time.  �For business, enterprises and institutions � large and small � Lightning Survey will become an essential business tool, as the Word Processor, Spreadsheet or Mobile Telephone have been in the past�, said Nigel Smith, Chief Executive of Tensor plc, at the launch of Lightning Survey in Hyde Park, London today.  �We have had a lot of interest from all types of organisations eagerly awaiting the arrival of this product,� he said. Lightning Survey Ltd, part of the Tensor plc group of companies; have spent over � million pounds in developing the new product during its year and a half development cycle. 

The global market for smart card-based access control solutions is set to reach a staggering $8.6 billion (£5.7 billion) by 2018, a new report by Global Industry Analysts reveals. The estimated growth for this specific market segment is related to increased security concerns backed by government and regulatory mandates, as well as higher security-dedicated budgets, the report says.

   Agreement was reached on 3rd April, 2000 on the extension of the Working Time Directive to cover workers in the sectors and activities currently excluded from the Directive. The Working Time Directive will be amended to cover doctors in training, offshore and railway workers and all non-mobile workers in the excluded sectors. Mobile workers in air, road and inland waterway transport will also be provided with "adequate rest", 4-weeks’ annual leave and for a limit on their working time. A separate directive, adopted last June, covers the working time of seafarers.  A nine-year timetable has been agreed for reducing the working time of doctors in training to 48 hours a week on average. The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will now each have 6 weeks in which to adopt the Directive. Member States will have 3 years to implement all the provisions. Tensor are advising companies and organizations affected (which basically appears to be any organisation employing people!) to review their own situation now. As the British and European leader in Time and Attendance and Access systems, Tensor have provided new features in the WinTA software to track, record and maintain compliance with the Work Time Directive. WinTA is the worlds first Smart Card Time & Attendance system that meets the requirements of the new legislation. The WindowsTM based Time Management Software is designed to complement the Tensor Smart Card hardware, providing calculations of employee hours, with integrated Access Control functions. WinTA built in reports but also has a Report Writer which allows you to define a wide range of customised reports, which can be printed, exported, or viewed on screen. Automatic reports can be generated at pre-set times, for any give period. The WinTA software also has extra modules such as Tensor Personnel, Manpower Scheduling, Visitor Control, Job Costing and ID Card Software which can be added at any time to enhance the standard WinTA software package. Every WinTA system has a Fire Roll Call module that can be programmed to automatically open all or certain doors in the event of emergency. The roll call list is printed automatically, this function is executed directly from the clocking stations and does not rely on the controlling PC.

The European Parliament voted yesterday to phase out the UK opt-out from the EU Working Time Directive. This vote is likely to be of concern to all UK companies who have yet to install systems for employee attendance monitoring the hours worked by their employees and have thus far relied on the UK opt-out.  The CBI and other organisations are fighting to keep the opt-out but it is likely that the �writing is on the wall� for the end of this arrangement, seen by many European countries as an outdated UK privilege. Companies with a Tensor WinTA Time & Attendance system have no worries as a special module is available which handles the rules surrounding the Working Time Directive. However, companies who have old clocking-in systems, or none at all, need to take action soon.  If you have concerns, click here, or call Tensor now.

The EU Employment and Social Affairs Committee have recommended the scrapping of the UK opt-out by the end of 2006. Certain responses have to be in to the Commission by 31st March 2003, but all indications point to UK companies having to install Time & Attendance monitoring systems to handle the legislation by December 2006. As you are probably aware by now, Tensor WinTA and WinTA Lite Time & Attendance systems manage the information and documentation required for the Working Time Directive and automatically calculate overtime and night working rules associated with the legislation. If you have any concerns, click HERE now.

The EEC have told the UK Government that the EU Road Transport Directive must be enshrined into UK law by March 2005. This means that mobile road transport workers must abide by the 48-hour working week regulations as stipulated in the EU Working Time Directive. The UK opt-out (which the EU is likely to terminate this year) will not apply. The Confederation of British Industry is seeking to mitigate the effects of the Directive by asking the Government to take up two derogations in the directive that  Allow the ‘average 48-hour week� to be over a 4-month period Allow night workers to work longer than 10 hours.  Tensor� have developed a special module that handles this for you. So no worries there! UK haulage companies have no choice other than to implement the Road Transport Directive with it�s somewhat complicated set of rules on hours worked, overtime and night workers. Companies who don�t record employee start and finish times by automatic means, must do so. However, help is at hand from Tensor as their WinTA Time & Attendance system automatically does all the calculations for you. If you have concerns, click HERE now.