News

Volunteers from a work programme spent part of the night under London Bridge before the Diamond Jubilee Thames pageant on Sunday, it has emerged. The company involved, Close Protection UK, has apologised for their mistake. The volunteers were bussed in from out of town for the celebrations marking the Queen’s Jubilee. The Guardian newspaper reported that one of those affected said conditions were “freezing”. It was alleged the workers had no access to toilets during their 14-hour shift. Time and Attendance Systems from Tensor handle the requirements of time and attendance, rostering and shift patterns. From simple determination of overtime by the number of daily hours worked to the more complex payment of overtime hours adjusted when periodic targets are not met, our WinTA networks can supply working rules to calculate the correct result. Working rules can be modified to suit your company’s Working Time agreements. You are pre-warned when applying a shift pattern that will result in a Working Time Regulations infringement.

A major nursing union has promised to fight a new staff incentive system which includes changes to sickness benefit. Sarah Zanoni from the Royal College of Nursing said staff should also be appropriately rewarded and described pay proposals put forward by a consortium of local health trusts as a “cartel”. A document containing the proposals notes potential opposition to such changes from unions and raises the possibility that, to secure them, “trusts would be obliged to dismiss and re-engage staff”. Time and Attendance technology from Tensor quickly identifies areas where normal working patterns have not been followed. Our WinTA software allows management or HR to view all time and attendance information including sickness or absence records for an employee or a single department. Designing your own reports is easy! Using a ‘drag & drop’ interface, reports are quickly defined. ‘Only if’ reports can be created to show, for example, only those who have worked overtime, those who are sick, or other types of absences.  

Home Secretary Theresa May’s measures to combat metal thefts will be ineffective, according to a dealer. In a parliamentary statement announcing a ban on cash payments for metal, Mrs May said a change in the law was the “only sustainable, long-term solution to the growing menace of metal theft.” Scrap dealer Steven Robertson suggested an alternative scheme to the Home Office, a 10% tax levied on metal sellers. Mr Robertson claimed the change “will just drive [thefts] underground”. Tensor stocks many CCTV products which will increase security and combat the widespread problem of metal thefts at outdoor locations or depots. Our range of digital CCTV surveillance cameras includes Infra Red CCTV Cameras. By utilising infra red light these cameras ensure security and safety for your sites throughout any light conditions. Infra red detectors can either be added to body cameras, or often inbuilt infra red cameras purchased for your CCTV solution. The cameras supplement any Tensor access control equipment carried at your premises.  

Personal information and bank account details affecting tens of thousands of people and businesses have been stolen from a laptop. It was one of two laptops stolen from council offices in Glasgow some time at the end of May. A council spokesman said: “We are in the process of writing to the people affected by this theft to alert them to the data loss and offer them advice about what steps they might need to take.” Tensor not only secures an office building but its computer equipment as well. Our range of ‘plug and play’ biometric control scanners have revolutionised PC access control. We have various models to choose from, enabling you to enhance your PC and laptop security with state-of-the-art technology, and there is no need for external power cables or batteries. The biometric fingerprint reader plugs directly into the USB port on your computer. It is ideal for setting up a secure biometric login to restrict access to confidential files on your own PC.  

Police are encouraging all football fans to enjoy watching the Euro 2012 tournament without causing trouble. Extra officers will be on duty in town centres for England’s games, ready to deal with those who commit crime or anti-social behaviour. A police spokesman said: “As always, people caught committing public order offences or alcohol-fuelled violence in our town centres can expect to be arrested and dealt with accordingly.” The Euro 2012 competition runs from Friday, June 8 to Sunday, July 1. Owners of property who are worried about break-ins this summer can rest easy as Tensor gives crime the red card with our access control devices and smart card systems. Tensor’s gates are ideal for controlling vehicle access to and from your site, and are quick to respond to the user’s instructions. Gates (the swing variety is pictured here) and our other barrier devices cope with high traffic volumes if your site is busy and operate to strict security standards when the area is unmanned.  

The GMB union described the payment of a big bonus to a water services provider as “an outrage”. The union's national officer Gary Smith said: “This is a classic case of reward for failure,” referring to Thames Water awarding boss Martin Baggs a bonus nearly equal to his annual salary while adopting a hosepipe ban. The utilities firm said that the bonuses paid to its top three executives combined had fallen 22 per cent. Tensor smart card-based clocking systems ensure the most up-to-date, accurate time and attendance information on company wages and hours is transferred from our clocking stations to our software. With up to 34 billion different combinations of ID number, there is no chance of duplication in our secure cards. In addition, each ID number has built-in security and integrity checks ensuring that it cannot be misread. A cross-reference list correlating the external printed card number and the programmed ID number is also provided, for easy system administration.  

Police confirmed an escaped prisoner was back in custody after being partly helped by a media campaign. Officers acknowledged the aid of a local newspaper when apprehending the runaway near Swansea. Detectives who had caught the missing man said: “Leon Llewellyn Passmore has been arrested and returned to custody. The media are thanked for their assistance.” Passmore had been jailed for being among a gang of robbers who, after leaving a shop, wished their victims a “merry Christmas”. Tensor numbers in its unrivalled range of access control security for premises a Visitor Management System including a version that can be used in prisons, among other locations. Visitor Pass production systems allow Reception and Gatehouse staff to quickly check the identity or enter the details of visitors, and print their personalised ID pass. Companies that do not have a front desk receptionist can take advantage of the VMS Unmanned Reception Console. This Console is operated via touch screen technology only; no mouse or keyboard is needed.  

Night shift workers kicked off strike action taking place this week. Coastguard workers walked out over station closures they say would mean the loss of life-saving local knowledge around the UK’s coastline. The industrial action began with night workers last Friday followed by day shift workers from 11am to 12pm on Saturday (June 9). The strikes alternated between night and day shift strikes up to and including the day shift today (Friday). Driving test examiners this week also took action. If your firm or organisation includes many complex shifts and pay arrangements in its weekly schedule then a Tensor Time and Attendance network is the best there is at sorting rotas and rosters. The various WinTA systems and software handle all major hours calculation methods. A number of basic rules control how hours are calculated. These include settings to separate ‘worked time’ into different overtime rates, plus night shift working. Periodic Overtime is used to calculate overtime on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.  

Opportunistic criminals are using the summer to take advantage of village festivals to steal. This and other patterns of crime were revealed in a study which investigated the tactics used by thieves. The criminals often called village festivals “opportune events” for theft and the research revealed that the type of help volunteered by rural criminals differed depending on the time of year. For example, typical work offered in the spring was pest control. Businesses in rural areas can better insulate themselves from crime with a Tensor 1 to 4 Scanner Access Control System. Tensor Access is modular in design, and so has the advanced capability of being able to be adapted and extended with extra time and attendance clocks and access control kit quickly, easily, and without complication. The T351x range comprises the ultimate Smart Card Access Control units for doors, car park barriers and turnstiles. T351x achieves the same standard of security throughout, whether for a single door up to a four door system controller.  

A guide has been published concerning the incidents of crime around universities. The guide is designed to give students the most details yet known about robbery and assaults around places of learning, particularly with tuition fees costing as much as £9,000 per year. The highest crime levels are in inner London, followed by Manchester Metropolitan, Leeds and Manchester. Buckingham, Aberystwyth and Durham have the lowest rates. About one in three students become victims of crime, says the Complete University Guide. Keeping crime off campus or any other large site is difficult, but at Tensor we believe we have most of the answers. Barrier Skirts are ideal for preventing pedestrians from walking underneath your automatic barrier. Barrier skirts offer the flexibility of a rising arm automatic barrier and the deterrent of a gate, but at a much lower cost. Not only suitable for automatic car park barriers, your barrier skirt can also be fitted to most manual barriers of varying boom lengths.  

One in four call centre workers are denied toilet breaks according to a new survey. Almost 800 employees in the industry were consulted. More than 80 per cent of respondents said that their work had caused them to feel stressed, which sometimes crossed over into their personal lives. The union Unison called on call centre employers to improve working conditions for staff, to address the “alarming number” of problems highlighted by the report. Work breaks and other rotas in the office are dealt with by WinTA Lite – one of many Time and Attendance systems from Tensor. The systems encompass the simple collection of clocking data, through to extensive labour hours analysis. Using the cutting-edge WinTA Lite software, both paid and unpaid breaks are easy to define and calculate. Your organisation’s human resources department can also create a wide range of daily working patterns or shifts. European Working Time Directive checking and reporting is also included, ensuring that your company remains compliant with employment legislation.  

PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Marmite, Walls, Hellmann's, Colman's – Unilever produces some of the most famous brands in Britain. The company is planning to shut a handful of sites around the UK, putting 800 jobs at risk. The firm has a total UK workforce of around 7,200. It said the proposed changes could be implemented by the end of 2013 and would be made up of 500 direct job losses and around 300 contractor and third party posts. Workplace PC software from Tensor allows the summary of clocking details to be viewed at-a-glance, showing individuals or groups of employees, and soon flags up abnormal working patterns. The WinTA Start system includes password limits to specific areas of the software. Web Page output provides professional reports that can be easily viewed and printed from any system (PC, Mac, Linux etc) with an internet browser. WinTA Start is your entry-level smart card-based HR system. From this simple beginning, you can upgrade to add ID Badge Production, Job Costing and Personnel.