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A police force said it was winning the war on crime by working in tandem with the business community. The newest statistics from Grampian Police showed that complaints regarding breach of peace in the centre of Aberdeen had fallen by 15 per cent from the previous year. Supt Mark Cooper said Aberdeen was getting safer. He commented: "This is a tribute to the hard work carried out, not only by our officers, but our partners in the licensed trade and the local authority.” Pep up security at your business or retail premises with Tensor's access control and/or visitor monitoring systems, which are operated by contactless smart cards. All Tensor smart cards and key fobs use the same well-proven and reliable RF (Radio Frequency) reading technology. With up to 34 billion different combinations of ID number, there is no chance of duplication of the cards. In addition, each ID number has built-in security and integrity checks ensuring that it cannot be misread.  

Yet another church has been singled out by metal thieves. The low-security buildings are easy targets due to the valuable lead on their roofs being sought for the black market. This time Painswick church in the West Country was stripped of two square metres of lead as police warned businesses in the area not to accept stolen property. Forest of Dean officers have been working with metal merchants in fighting the problem, and a similar scheme has been launched in Gloucester. Access Control systems from Tensor use smart card technology to increase your building, site or office security. The system can be used for single or multi-site companies and will operate most standard types of internal or external locks or releases at site entry points. It will control your car park barriers, turnstiles or roller doors. An anti pass back facility limits the same card being used by more than one person, while door or barrier access can be limited depending on the person’s roll call status.  

Ministers have reportedly tried to persuade civil servants to give up performance-related payments but were told the rewards were a contractual right. According to The Daily Telegraph, one quarter of the most senior civil service officials are in line for a sum worth up to 10 per cent of their salary. Cabinet Office reports says permanent secretaries last year donated their performance-related pay to the Civil Service Benevolent Fund while in 2008-09 they waived all their bonuses. If bonuses and other pay such as overtime are required as part of your staff’s contracts or agreed hours, then a Tensor Time and Attendance system is the best there is for your business’s payroll. Our flagship WinTAnet application can supply special working rules to calculate correct flexitime contracts which are common in the public sector. Employees working on an annual contract basis can be accommodated by the annualised hours procedures and reports within the WinTA system. The clever Tensor software can insert unpaid breaks if employees do not clock them.  

A scrap metal dealer says it is working with police to curb the problem of metal thieves attempting to shift stolen material. Avon Metals, based in Gloucestershire, said it will turn away anyone they believe is dealing in dodgy metals. Operations director John Verdon said the firm tends to deal with trusted merchants, adding: "We always ask for identification so there's a paper trail if anything turns out not to be right." Tensor Access Enterprise is one of Tensor's latest developments in our proven range of Windows™ based Access Control products, from simple door and registration point control, through to a fully computerised global networked system. The multi-user Tensor Access Enterprise is 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. Door access can be limited depending on the person's roll call status, and can be configured to open on fire alarms and lock on burglar alarms.  

Overall the UK economy experienced a sharp slowdown during the second quarter of this year. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was up just 0.7 per cent on the same three months of last year. This was a big decline from a year-on-year rise of 1.6% in the first quarter. Ironically the poor GDP figures came out when Bank of England Governor Mervyn King was meeting members of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. He said: “Speaking directly to business people adds a great deal to our understanding of economic conditions.” Tensor plc can kick-start your organisation’s clocking, payroll, lateness and absence recording requirements with a sophisticated time and attendance system. Our fully customisable WinTA systems easily and accurately record your employees' clocking data and perform equally well with both small and large numbers of employees. These systems come complete with Working Time Directive software, ensuring that your organisation remains compliant with regional, national, and international legislation. Standard reports include: Weekly Clock Card, Lateness Report, Payroll Summary, Absence Summary and Exceptions.

A court issued a woman with an 'Asbo' preventing her from entering public toilets after she was found passed out from inhaling solvents. She was thus banned from public loos around the area of East Lothian in Scotland, and it is believed to be one of the first cases of its kind. Kirsty Lennon was involved in an incident in Edinburgh, when a member of the public became aware that she had collapsed in a cubicle. Tensor's gates, barriers and turnstiles fully integrate with our smart card and biometric access control systems giving you full jurisdiction over movement and access in and around your site. Tensor offer a coin operated option for our turnstiles which offer improved security to your toilet facilities and extend flow capacity. With the addition of Tensor's fingerprint biometrics system, you have the perfect barrier against illegal entry. Without compromising the safety of those who use the turnstile, speed and reliability are provided even during rush hour periods.  

Unions and managers are set on a collision course at Network Rail over its plans to speed up modernisation of the industry in the wake of a wide-ranging study. Sir Roy McNulty’s overview called for savings of £1 billion a year to be made by the end of the decade in order to avoid further line closures. The RMT union demanded increased annual leave and voluntary retirement on full pension entitlement at 55 in return for agreeing to the changes. Holiday entitlement, pay and overtime matters are easy to work out at your firm using Tensor’s cutting edge Time and Attendance WinTA range of systems. The software 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. Standard reports show the average hours worked during any period by an employee and instances when rest day rules have been broken.  

A teaching union says it has put a ten-point plan to a school's governing body to resolve a pay dispute. Six teachers are affected overall, about a quarter of the teaching staff, at a Gwynedd school in north-west Wales. Commenting on the plan, union official Chris Keates said: "This was rejected. Instead the governors opted to push forward with redundancies." Two teachers face redundancy, and two one-day strikes have already been held at the school over the issue. A scaled-down version of Tensor's acclaimed WinTA Lite time and attendance software is available to organisations such as schools that do not want all of WinTA’s comprehensive features. A straightforward attendance recording product is delivered via the PC Clock which is a simple booking system where each pupil has access to a PC. Pupils are simply presented with an input screen on their PC allowing them to clock in and out. Many features like the holiday and absence planners are still present for small-scale time and attendance monitoring.  

Litter bin and other thefts are costing some councils tens of thousands of pounds. Rhondda Cynon Taf council (RCT) in Mid Glamorgan is one of those hit hard, with £6,000 worth of manholes stolen again last week. Nigel Wheeler, RCT streetcare service director, said: "We had to shut the road to make it safe. That was a nightmare. It had a knock-on effect to commuters and a cost to us.” Caerphilly council forked out £70,000 to replace metal bins last year. Tensor plc are the experts in providing Access Control, Visitor Control and barrier technology for protection of your office or site. Tensor's gates, barriers, and turnstiles fully integrate with our smart card and biometric access control systems giving you full jurisdiction over movement and access in and around your site. The gates cope with high traffic volumes and severe operating conditions while requiring no routine maintenance. All gates include a manual override facility preventing closure on a pedestrian or vehicle as well as offering safety in a power failure.  

A survey found that more than a third of workers admitted to ‘skiving'. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) polled 1,190 people, of which 34% admitted to taking time off work under false pretences. Most of those confessing to the office crime said they did so because they were bored and depressed with work. Almost half of the skivers told PwC they planned their sick days by faking symptoms around the workplace in advance. As well as handling all major hours calculation methods and swift smart card based clocking, Tensor time & attendance systems are unbeatable at absence planning and entitlement management. Absenteeism and lateness reporting is another specialist feature of our WinTA networks. Graphical calendar charts provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records. Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements that work on a rising scale based upon length of service.  

Due to the fact it will expand to a full time service in mid Wales, the Wales Air Ambulance emergency service will end up costing an extra £300,000 a year. It will operate for a trial period of six months with the intention of making it permanent. The charity, which made the announcement at the Royal Welsh Show in Powys, explained that seven-day cover was vital in such a remote region. Each mission is said to cost around £1,500. Tensor Smart Card operated time and attendance systems help to save your organisation time and money. The proximity read cards do not contain a battery, thus they have a near-infinite life, and can be read an infinite number of times – which will save on costs. This is unlike swipe clocking systems, which cause much wear and tear on cards. All Tensor smart cards and 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.  

Part of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) was suspended today (Monday, July 18) following a major plant fire in London. Firefighters and a fireboat were at the scene of a huge waste plant fire near Canning Town and workers had to be evacuated from the premises. The DLR was today suspended between Canning Town and West Silvertown because the fire is close to the tracks, the London Fire Brigade said. Tensor's access control security products can be integrated with fire roll call software that will automatically generate a report in the event of a fire or other emergency. Door control can easily be set up using a T3511 Door Access Controller to raise health and safety standards at your work premises. The T3511 can be used with two Smart Card readers to control entry and exit. This gives better management control as the T3511 can differentiate which reader was used, so you know who is left in the building. This is essential for producing an accurate Fire Roll Call register.