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A county council which has had to offload 1,200 jobs this year is set to pay a six-figure annual sum to employ a ‘broadband tsar’. Hampshire County Council is spending £193,000 per year on a two-year broadband project. The sum includes the pay package of the project director, a salary for a more junior officer and £30,000 project development costs. The new project director will head a bid to improve high-speed Internet access across the county, especially rural areas. Tensor’s WinTA Time and Attendance software enables a summary of clocking details to be viewed at-a-glance, showing individuals or groups of employees. Numerous pay grades and working patterns can been set up, including night shifts. Groups are used to define sequences of shift patterns. Each group can be set up to override the normal pattern and use a specific shift on public holidays. Overtime is easily monitored with up to four different pay bands in each shift. Periodic Overtime is used to calculate overtime on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.  

Network Rail said it had been using its anti-theft device SmartWater to protect its cables for a number of months. This was in response to overnight thefts of 50 yards of copper power cable and 50 yards of telecommunications cable which halted services between Bolton and Blackburn and disabled the signalling system. The invisible fluid is sprayed on the cables and then leaves its mark on anything it comes into contact with, such as the thieves' skin or tools. In these days of heightened security, 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. When absolute entrance or exit security is required, full height turnstiles that need no routine maintenance are the perfect solution. Ideal in unmanned locations, they provide maximum security together with a strong visual deterrent. Offering unrivalled reliability, Tensor's full height turnstiles are tamper-resistant and weatherproof ensuring they can last in even the most unforgiving of environments.  

A new report says UK workers do £29 billion worth of unpaid overtime in total each week. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) commissioned the report, which said unpaid overtime was likely to go up in the public sector because of heavy job losses expected during this year as a result of Government spending cuts. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "With tough economic conditions making employers reluctant to recruit, existing staff are picking up much of the increasing work load.” Designed for smaller companies, WinTA Lite is the latest in Tensor’s proven range of time and attendance products, from simple collection of employees' clocking data, through to job costing and extensive labour hours analysis. It handles Time and Attendance, European Working Time Directive checking and reporting, multiple shifts, flexitime and job costing. Overtime is easily monitored, and both paid and unpaid breaks are easy to define and calculate. A demonstration edition of the WinTA Lite package is available as a free trial.  

Thieves embarked on a mini crime wave affecting businesses in the North West which involved grabbing all sorts of equipment. Those premises broken into included barbers, estate agents and a sweet shop in the Bolton area. One of the barbers had its front window smashed with a brick, with offenders stealing takings from the till and clippers. The owners of this shop reported that they lost a day’s business and had to deal with the damage. Operated by contactless smart cards or key fobs, a Tensor Access system gives you full control over who is allowed access to your business through any controlled point at any time of any day, placing it at the forefront of security solutions. The security status of each access point is controlled by the smart card scanner settings associated to that particular access point. These settings determine the locked status of the door, minute-by-minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year. For more details about our security accreditations, click here.

Emergency services have launched an investigation into the cause of a fire at a row of stores on a retail park. Fire engines were called to the park which is situated in Newport, Wales, after the blaze started in the early hours of the morning. Investigators examined the scene to determine the cause of the incident, and fire and rescue officials from South Wales added that three stores were set alight. Fire roll call software can be added to Tensor's widespread range of security products, whether visitor control and monitoring or access control, to protect your employees. In the case of a fire or other emergency situation, reports are immediately printed containing the vital information concerning who is on site. Unlike most other systems, this function is executed directly from the clocking stations and does not rely on the controlling PC or computer infrastructure. Employees use their smart cards or key fobs to record their presence. If they have forgotten their cards, they can be checked off manually using the generated reports.

Pupils are facing being made late for school because of cutbacks affecting bus routes. Sophie Allen, from the Campaign for Better Transport, said the loss of the subsidy from Devon County Council to bus companies would leave many services uneconomic to run. In a statement the council said it had been forced into action because of the £5m cut to concessionary bus passes for the over-60s and government cuts to its budget. Tensor, the foremost provider of smart card clocking technology, offers a basic version of its time and attendance system which is tailor-made for schools encountering problems with attendance. WinTA PC Clock remains the best product on the market for small-scale time and attendance monitoring. It is a simple PC based booking system ideal for organisations 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. PC Clock can be used for any number of users and there is no need for additional licences.  

Mirroring the national trend over the past three decades, Nottinghamshire Police have reported a fall in crime figures for the Keyworth area. January's figures for the areas of Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, Keyworth, Tollerton and the Neville ward have dropped compared with the previous month. There were 31 crimes reported in December 2010 and the number fell to 22 last month. In Keyworth during the past month there were nine recorded crimes, compared with 14 the month before, including a shop theft. Tensor’s simple to use Access Control software, called WinACnet, creates alarm messages when predetermined actions take place, or if a forced entry occurs at your business premises. These alarms are immediately emailed to a specified address. The resilient system keeps running even when certain cables are cut or damaged or PC networks fail. Other features in the smart card operated security regime include sensor monitoring to detect forced entry; and an audit trail showing who has gained access (or has been denied) at any location at any time.

Eleven engines and 70 firefighters were required to bring under control a big fire which started in a restaurant building. The conflagration had begun in the kitchen area of the Glasgow premises, spreading quickly to the upper floors and roof. A family who lived above in a flat had to be rescued. A fire services spokesman added: "Due to the construction of these property types, hidden fire spread via enclosed voids and spaces, and they are notoriously difficult and dangerous for crew to tackle." Tensor's security and clocking products can be integrated with fire roll call software that will automatically generate a report in the event of a fire or other emergency. The report contains the crucial information concerning who is on site. As employees assemble at their fire roll call points, they use their smart cards or key fobs to record their presence. The automatic report generation of highly accurate attendance reports makes this a must-buy item for any employers concerned with the safety and welfare of their workforce.

Birmingham City Council is understood to be earmarking its museum and art gallery, above, for job cuts as it needs to save £75 million. Widely regarded as Britain's largest local authority, it plans to shed up 2,000 jobs, freeze staff pay and reduce services in this financial round, which is held to be a taste of cuts to come in council budgets nationwide. Council leader, Mike Whitby, said: "All the forecasts indicate the next few years will be tough. Quite simply we have to do more for less." A complete system for calculating wages, bonuses, pay and shifts is WinTA Enterprise, which is Tensor’s flagship Windows™ based time and attendance product for businesses. It provides total control over working rules, job costing and system security. The T32xx Clocking Station works independently of the PC, if the PC is switched off or fails. It has digital outputs to control door locks, fire alarms, wall clocks, and much more. Automatic fault reporting via the Internet is another one of its myriad features.  

The Managing Director of an expanding electronics firm explained why it is opening a new online sales and distribution centre, thus creating up to 60 jobs. Clive Murphy said the availability of the new building meant his firm Trojan was able to meet growing demand. The company, which specialises in the repair, refurbishment and recycling of consumer electronics products, is based in Gorseinon, Wales, and will also use the new depot in Swansea. Tensor can help your business grow, whether you need updating your personnel and clocking system or are moving sites. Our entry-level time and attendance system WinTA Lite operates a single time clock and can record employee details for up to 250 people. Job booking, job costing and labour hours analysis is included in the network, as are individual and group absence planners. Thanks to its modular design this particular time and attendance solution can also link to your Tensor access control application, where it is able to efficiently share employee data. For larger sites our WinTA Enterprise system fits the bill.  

Professor Stephen Soumerai, part of a research team looking into doctors’ pay, said of a bonus scheme introduced in 2004: "The programme's lack of effect may be explained in part by performance targets that were set too close to existing practice." It was found the system had no real impact on the treatment of high blood pressure. The researchers did not look at other parts of the bonus system, but their findings echoed concerns about whether the targets were ambitious enough as doctors hit them regularly. Tensor’s WinTA time and attendance systems provide the ultimate payroll solution as they enable the creation of a wide range of daily working patterns. The software exports to all popular payroll systems and can deal with fixed or flexitime rules, night shifts, overtime and bonus payments. Bands are selected based on the time and the number of hours worked. Employees use their contactless smart cards to book jobs at the clocking stations, which are also used to register attendance by clocking in and out.