News

A fake security guard got away with £14,000 on Thursday afternoon. The thief, who was wearing a safety helmet and body armour, appeared genuine and walked into the bargain goods shop carrying two cash boxes which were then filled up with money. Staff at the Midlands branch of Poundland were expecting the genuine guard at around the same time so suspected nothing until they saw the real guard sitting in his van. Tensor has the ideal system for maximum security at retail or business premises. Biometric access control is the answer for situations where irrefutable proof of identity is needed. This technology, designed specifically for your Tensor access control system, actually reads below the surface layer of skin down to the live dermal layer where an individual’s true fingerprint resides. Biometric readings are done using electro-magnetic waves. Fingerprint scanning positively identifies an employee, thus employee mimicking can be accurately prevented. If you already have access scanners in place, the biometric scanning unit is simply mounted alongside.

UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers raided a Tesco property and discovered its staff were breaching the terms of their work visas. The UKBA found that foreign nationals were working longer hours than their visas allowed at the South London warehouse, which supplies groceries for online customers. UKBA officers arrested 20 workers who were mostly of Indian and Bangladeshi origin. These people were perfectly legally entitled to work in the UK but could only do so for 20 hours a week. All Tensor time and attendance systems come complete with sophisticated software to help your company meet the requirements of the EU Working Time Directive, plus other employment rules. The EU Working Time Directive provides a complex set of employment rules and regulations that govern the number of hours an employee can work. Tensor provides companies with an accurate method of recording their staff’s hours and breaks for payroll, job costing and legislation purposes. For example, the software ensures minimum rest periods are taken.

Police have issued CCTV images of two suspected burglars being sought over the riots which broke out over summer 2011. Both men were seen in Hackney, east London, which witnessed much looting from shops during the disorder. A police spokesperson said: “A year on and we are still working hard to track down the people responsible for last summer’s disorder. I hope that someone somewhere will be able to identify them.” Protect your retail premises, whether a shop, warehouse or on an industrial estate, with a Tensor Digital CCTV system. The technology enables your management to monitor movement and access within a specific area. The camera network can be combined with any previously installed Tensor access control or visitor monitoring equipment. In addition, you are not restricted to the type of camera you wish to install as the CCTV software is able to support all cameras within our product range. Picture quality is far superior to that of an analogue system.  

A well-known car company moves to 24-hour production at one of its factories this week. Workers at the Jaguar Land Rover Halewood facility will assume three eight-hour shifts for the first time in its 50-year history. The vehicle maker said that the move was in response to growing demand for its Range Rover Evoque model, which was launched in July last year. New production operators taken on will receive training of up to a year towards an NVQ Apprenticeship. Tensor can install a complete factory smart card time and attendance system, ensuring that your company retains full control over changing shifts, manning levels and rostering. Using the Shift Premiums function, complex payment schemes can be used, based on factors such as the time of working to the grade of employee. Via the simple use of contactless smart cards or key fobs, employees can book time against their production jobs to produce a fully costed analysis and breakdown of time spent on each one.  

A man has appeared in court accused of four counts of fraud by false representation, four counts of fraud by abuse of position, and two counts of using a false instrument with intent it be accepted as genuine. Giovanni di Stefano is a lawyer who has represented many notorious criminals, including ‘Great Train Robber’ Ronnie Biggs. The legal team of Di Stefano indicated he “vigorously” denies the allegations and will plead not guilty to the ten charges. A Visitor Management System (VMS) from Tensor is the answer to checking the credentials of individuals who enter your facility or office building. The document scanning facility within VMS allows your organisation to make scanned digital copies of special identification licenses or insurance documentation provided by a visitor or contractor. Once recorded onto the system, these documents can be retrieved, viewed or recreated and printed on demand. This is especially important where it is necessary to provide proof that only properly qualified people are allowed on site.  

Olympic Security Chief Chris Allison said cuts in specialist police officers were already starting to bite. The Met Assistant Commissioner had asked chief constables to delay making cuts until after the Games, but warned police bosses will need to make “very difficult decisions” in the aftermath of London 2012. There were no security major incidents in the Olympics. This was partly due to more than 100 people being arrested in pre-emptive operations before the event, plus the deployment of extra troops. Tensor’s gates, barriers, and turnstiles fully integrate with our smart card and biometric access control systems and will prevent a security incident happening in and around your site. Automatic bollards limit vehicle access to a specific location, and can easily be lowered when passage is authorised, typically within a few seconds. Proven in a range of locales, these bollards are a trusted way to control access to private or restricted parking facilities. For more information on a Tensor turnstile, barrier or gate, please contact our sales team.

The latest research finds staff aged 16 to 29 faced a 10 per cent wage fall from 2003 to 2011 in real terms. Their pay situation compared poorly to that of older workers. The Resolution Foundation discovered that earnings for employees aged under 30 fell by 6.4 per cent in the seven years from 2003, representing the biggest pay contraction of the UK workforce. Young men fared worst as their average wages fell 8.6%, while women’s went down 5.8%. Payroll, wages and hours are all dealt with by WinTA, the leading clocking recording and HR management system from Tensor. All frequently used methods of hours calculation are handled, 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. WinTA contains special rules to accommodate the formal flexitime contracts worked by many public sector employees. Workers paid via annual contracts are encompassed by the annualised hours procedures.

The cause of a huge weekend fire at a recycling centre will not be known for days. More than 200 firefighters tackled the blaze which took place in Dagenham on Sunday. Olympic venues were not affected, and a fire service spokesman said: “Because of the amount of damage and the size of the site and because how deeply the stuff was stacked that was burning it will take some days to remove it and properly investigate the fire.” Tensor technology has health and safety at work as a priority. For instance our Access Control T3512 Low Cost 1 Scanner System includes magnetic door release with built in door monitoring; push button for exit; and break glass for emergency exit. It also features Fire Roll Call from fire panel input. Using two Smart Card readers to control entry and exit gives better management control as the T3511 can differentiate which reader was used so you know who is left in the building.  

Prison authorities are feeling the backlash over using Monmouthshire inmates to fill nearby vacancies. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that 23 prisoners were working at a Cardiff office, but said they were filling vacant posts. A Prison Service spokesman said: “Prison Service rules are very clear: prisoners employed by outside companies cannot replace existing staff. They can only fill genuinely vacant posts.” Furthermore, 40 per cent of the open prisoners’ earnings at the call centre go to a victims’ fund. If your office wants the sophistication and speed of smart card access control, but do not wish to use a PC, then this Tensor equipment is for you. The T3510 Low Cost 4 Scanner Controller is programmed with up to three Master Cards using feedback LED’s and switches. This offers the user a quick and easy method of adding or removing access rights for individuals. Any standard burglar alarm can be connected directly to the T3510 so an audible and/or visual alert is immediately triggered from a forced entry.  

A discussion currently taking place among professionals on the business networking site LinkedIn is the importance of taking a lunch break. It comes after a recent survey from Bupa found that companies in the UK are losing neat to £50 million a day in lost productivity from workers who fail to take a lunch break. The debate explores the idea that by skipping lunch, the impact on workers’ productivity levels is keenly felt. Tensor solves the problem of regulating, recording and monitoring breaks at the factory or office. Our Time and Attendance systems, like WinTA Lite, make both paid and unpaid breaks are easy to define and calculate. The PC-run network inserts unpaid breaks if employees do not clock them. You can also enable breaks to activate between set times, and/or after a minimum number of hours have been worked. Tensor can offer various financing and rental packages to both private and public sector organisations who wish to install our products.  

Employment Minister Chris Grayling denied that there were any government financial targets to reduce people on sickness benefits. He said: “The reason why we reassess people who are on sickness benefits is that all the evidence is that a substantial proportion can return to some form of work. We have no financial targets for this.” The minister’s comments came after advisors the government tasked to review the ‘fit to work’ tests system warned that it still needed improvement. Even Tensor’s entry-level Time and Attendance systems handle sickness, absence and other clocking issues at the workplace. For example, Individual and Group Absence Planners are features of WinTA Start, which manages time and attendance recording for up to 50 people. Management or HR can choose to view all types of absences, a single absence type or all types with a common category. Absence categories and types are fully user-definable. Reports can be instantly generated as a customised web page that integrates perfectly with a company Intranet.  

Ram raiders stole a cashpoint machine from outside a bank in the early hours of Thursday morning (August 2). Police say the raid happened shortly after 2.15am at a Lincolnshire branch of Barclays Bank. At least four men wearing balaclavas loaded the cashpoint into the back of a 4×4 vehicle and made their getaway. Detectives say the gang’s getaway vehicle and the cashpoint were both liable to be abandoned in an isolated rural area. Tensor can provide your business or organisation with a sophisticated access control system guaranteed to meet your security requirements. Tensor Access Enterprise is the multi-user version intended for larger companies. It includes extra software to enable you to easily add and edit profile settings to all registered hardware equipment attached to your company’s network of Tensor equipment. It provides total control over who is allowed access through any controlled point at any time of day at a site. Adding biometric technology will practically eliminate any chances of mimicking a person’s identity.