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The national minimum wage will go up to £6.19 an hour in October, the government has announced. Business Secretary Vince Cable said that the decision to put the rate up by 11p an hour and freeze the rate for younger workers marked the “right balance between pay and jobs”. This increase is 1.8% from the current level, which is lower than inflation but in line with the average increase in earnings, which rose by 1.4% over the year to January. Time and attendance and HR systems from Tensor make calculating wages and hours at your factory or office a formality and our software works with the vast majority of payroll systems. 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, WinTAnet – one of our most advanced systems – can supply working rules to calculate the correct result. Workers paid on an annual contract basis can be handled by the annualised hours procedures.

Departing BBC directors’ pay-offs have been compared to lottery wins. An example of the huge payments was Caroline Thomson. Previously the BBC’s chief operating officer on a reported salary of £335,000 a year, she gained £670,000 when exiting the organisation in September. The sum was revealed by BBC leaders during a Public Accounts Committee evidence session. Committee member Guto Bebb quipped: “It looks as though losing a job at the BBC is the same as winning the lottery.” Take total control of the payments made and hours worked in your organisation with an integrated Tensor Time and Attendance System. Work patterns in our WinTA network are a combination of daily rules that are either a repeating pattern of shifts or a list of alternative working rules. Here, WinTAnet will predict the most appropriate shift depending on when an employee starts work. Each type of pattern can be set up to override the normal pattern and use a specific shift on public holidays.

“I’ve got a gun, empty the till,” a man said to a terrified pair of shop workers in an attempted raid. One of the couple, Anila Ali, was serving a customer when the incident happened. She said: “He dipped his hand into the till and my instinct was to grab his hand and pull it out.” Thirty-six year-old Paul Lugton, who fled empty-handed, has been jailed for 14 months after admitting attempted robbery at the premises in south-east Scotland. Tensor can install smart card access control scanner systems for all manner of commercial premises. For more effective security authorisation of an individual, Tensor uses biometrics which is the technique of studying the physical characteristics of a person such as your fingerprint, hand geometry, eye structure or voice pattern. A T3400 biometric scanner adds high security, dermal fingerprint checking to your access control system. Using impact-resistant casing, the T3400 can be installed with a new system or retro-fitted to your existing clocking stations.

Judges have ruled in the favour of famous football club Rangers over its use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) to make payments to players, managers and other employees. An EBT is a discretionary trust set up for the benefit of staff. Former bosses Alex McLeish and Dick Advocaat are two who have benefited from an EBT, receiving £1.7 million and £1.5m respectively. International stars Tore Andre Flo (Norway) and Dutchman Ronald de Boer are others thought to have been included in the scheme. Time and Attendance Systems from Tensor that handle all major hours calculation methods include a facility for making bonus payments. The WinTA system allows you to create a series of shift premium rules that enable employees to earn bonus payments under special circumstances. The bonus is calculated either as extra hours or monetary amounts and can be included in the export to payroll. Boasting features that grant total control over your business operation, the network inserts unpaid breaks if employees do not clock them.

A rail firm said eight shifts were affected by a lack of drivers, which meant nearly two-dozen trains were subject to changes. London Midland has apologised for the altered timetable, which are set to last for the next fortnight. The company stated the end was in sight to the problem, as it explained: “It takes well over a year to become a qualified train driver, but several of our trainees are now approaching the end of the course.” Does your business suddenly itself short of employees? Tensor solves many personnel and rostering problems with our Time and Attendance systems. Manning levels in our WinTA PC network are based upon employee skills required during the working week. Any shortfalls to the expected requirement, due to absenteeism for example, can trigger a system email or SMS alerts. A separate module is available for rostering and manpower scheduling. WinTA includes data such as graphical calendar charts for viewing an individual’s or a department’s absence records.

A ‘living wage’ pay deal for local government workers has been hailed as the best outside London by Cosla, a representative group for councils. Although the one per cent pay rise falls well below inflation of 2.7%, Cosla said a guaranteed rate of £7.50 an hour has also been pledged for 17,000 of the lowest-paid council employees from next April. It added that local authorities had gone to the “limits of affordability” considering the financial strain many of them are experiencing. Versatile time and attendance software and systems from Tensor allow companies or local authorities to key an eye on their staff budgets as well as giving total control over daily working patterns and pay bands. Overtime is easily monitored, and both paid and unpaid breaks are easy to define and calculate. Employees can use their contactless smart cards to book time against jobs to produce a fully costed analysis. Reports show jobs that are over budget or those approaching their budget limit.

Hotels have been hit by tech-savvy burglars. It is suspected thieves are exploiting a lock security bug which enables them to bypass certain electronic door locks. Insurance firms said they expected to take heavy losses as knowledge of the new technique spread among professional thieves. Todd Seiders, a spokesman for Petra Risk Solutions and one of the insurance brokers interviewed by Forbes news service, said: “We're going to get hit hard over the next year.” Tensor has many cutting-edge crime-busting solutions for a commercial concern or property. A range of equipment, devices and releases can be connected to your security network, which can be operated through its access control software including: alarms and hooters, door locks, door release buttons, electro-magnetic door locks, fingerprint readers and scanners. A log is generated, regardless of whether an access attempt was successful or not, allowing you to see who has been going where on your site. For top level security, biometric scanning devices can be added.

A woman faked documents including a BsC to get a biology teaching job at a school, a court was told. Julia Rawlinson admitted false representation and forgery. In Exeter Crown Court, Judge Philip Wassall told her: “You created layer upon layer of lies and blighted everyone you taught. There was not a single sign of regret.” Among the forged documents was a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. A useful feature of a Tensor Visitor Management System, or VMS, is document scanning. This facility allows your organisation to make scanned digital copies of special identification documents, accreditations, licenses or insurance documentation provided by a visitor or contractor to your premises. Once recorded onto the VMS, these documents can be retrieved, viewed or recreated and printed on demand. This is vital where it is necessary to provide proof that the proper due diligence procedures have been followed and that only properly qualified people are allowed on site.

The British Army said an extra leave spell for hard-working personnel will make no impact on its mission in Afghanistan. Military staff have been granted a bonus five days off this Christmas in recognition of their hard work during 2012. An Army spokesman said the leave was “in recognition of the exceptionally busy year the Army has had both on operations and at home,” adding: “Personnel who are essential to supporting operations will remain on task regardless of this leave period.” Individual and Group Absence Planners are ingenious features of complete Smart Card Time and Attendance Systems from Tensor. A summary of clocking details can be viewed at-a-glance, showing individuals or groups of employees, and an Exception view quickly identifies areas where the normal working pattern has not been followed. Up to nine reason codes for staff absence can also be stored in a Tensor clocking station. These allow clocking out for configurable reasons such as Dentist, Business or Smoking Break.

Scrap metal cash payments have been banned at recycling yards in a bid to combat metal thefts. The Association of Chief Police Officers calculates that metal theft costs the UK economy £770m per year. A parliamentary bill, tabled by Richard Ottaway MP, aims to bring in licensing for scrap metal dealers. However, the British Metals Recycling Association – which has been supporting the Scrap Metal Dealers Bill – contends that a cash ban alone will not cut metal theft. Tensor’s range of barriers amounts to an effective method of protecting yards and other outdoor locations. Car Park Barriers from Tensor are ideal for controlling vehicle access to your site's car park and road entry points. Immediately able to recognise and allow or deny access to personnel, Tensor’s barriers cater for all sizes of premises and are highly adaptable. Optional extras include a folding arm mechanism and an impact release mechanism. To ensure problem free operation, our experienced engineers can individually adjust each barrier to suit your needs.

A recent survey showed that almost half of UK retailers see their IT department as the key to gaining full benefit from IP (Internet Protocol) surveillance. It comes on the heels of an earlier report that said 60 per cent of retailers think CCTV has had a direct effect in reducing theft. The survey, conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, reported that retailers understood that networked surveillance systems could be used for more than theft prevention when combined with business intelligence systems. Tensor networked surveillance systems can be integrated with the rest of a retail or commercial access control security set-up. CCTV combined with movement monitoring and an entry point controlled smart card access control network with optional biometrics means your property is comprehensively protected. Tensor technology is IP enabled, and our Digital CCTV Camera and Recording Systems are PC based, multi channel video surveillance systems that use the most advanced compression technologies to bring the highest picture quality and video performance.

Employees at a well known haulage firm are driving a hard bargain. The lorry drivers have walked out indefinitely in a long-standing dispute with their bosses Eddie Stobart. The company announced a reorganisation in September after it took over a supermarket distribution centre in Yorkshire, and which union members say threatens jobs. Eddie Stobart said its redundancy pay offer was “the best possible financial package”. The latest industrial action started just after midnight today (December 6, 2012). Contactless key fobs as well as smart cards are used to operate a time and money saving Tensor time and attendance system. All Tensor key fobs use the same well-proven and reliable RF (Radio Frequency) reading technology. This gives a consistent read range which is unaffected by most external conditions. The fobs have no battery, thus an almost infinite life, and can be read thousands number of times. They can be read in under half a second thus enabling factory or office staff to clock in quickly.