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Senior fire and police staff said a new plan to merge their two control rooms would save money and improve services. The Tayside area's chief fire officer, Stephen Hunter, said it was one of several options being discussed, including sharing fleet maintenance, in the light of expected funding shortfalls. He added: "Over the coming months a detailed feasibility study will be undertaken to enable the fire and police boards to evaluate the options and reach the necessary decisions once clarification is received regarding future levels of funding.'' Tensor clocking recording technology serves up the solution if your organisation is moving or merging staff, as our software handles all hours and wages calculations. WinTA Enterprise is our flagship time and attendance system and is suitable for larger organisations, as it is unrestricted by the number of employees and packed with additional features. It provides total control over working rules, job costing and fire roll call, and can be combined with biometric technology to provide extra security clearance. It comes complete with a T8440 Clocking Station and 50 Smart Cards.

Severe winter weather put off crisis talks that were aimed to prevent industrial action by hospital cleaners in Southampton. Previously members voted 98 per cent in favour of joining a picket line outside Southampton General Hospital over the long standing disagreement. Talks bidding to end the row over pay had to be postponed due to heavy snow, and the strike now hangs in the balance. The Unison union said they hope to rearrange the meeting, but if that is not possible they have to decide what to do next. Your workplace will function smoothly and harmoniously by installing a Tensor speciality software system, which provides a fast, accurate and easy-to-use method in recording employees' hours of working. Suitable for organisations employing a smaller workforce, WinTA Lite is an all-in-one time and attendance recording system with job booking, job costing and labour hours analysis. The Export to Payroll function links to popular payroll set-ups like Sage, Moorepay, and others. WinTA Lite has a standard Explorer™ style interface, and multi lingual versions are available.

The GMB union accused a council of threatening staff with a ‘lock-out’ if they did not sign a new contract containing changes including pay, sick pay, and car allowances. The GMB added that thousands of council workers face losing their jobs unless they accept the contracts. Labour-run Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) council, which has the second highest population in Wales, expressed disappointment at the GMB reaction. RCT stressed it was reviewing staff contracts because of cuts, and hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies. Tensor is the number one for staff clocking and payroll with our smart card Time and Attendance systems. These include WinTA Start which holds up to 50 employees’ details, including a photograph of each employee. Using the software a summary of clocking details can be viewed at-a-glance, showing individuals or groups of employees. An Exception view quickly identifies areas where the normal working pattern has not been followed. Up to nine reason codes can also be stored in the clocking station. These allow clocking out for configurable reasons such as Dentist, Business or Smoking Break.  

A police force is asking ten school-leavers to join its new cadet scheme. Northern Constabulary, which covers the Highlands and Northern and Western isles of Scotland, said taking part in the scheme would be a big advantage to anyone wishing to enter the force. Of the six month long training programme, which 16 to 17 year-olds can apply for, Chief Constable Ian Latimer said: "There are some real financial pressures on us but it is important to invest in the long term future of policing in the Highlands and Islands." Tensor offers a complete and modular smart card based access control system to take care of all security issues at your premises. All employees have their own profile entered into the access control software. When an attempt is made to pass through an access point, the scanner will compare that employee's security profile with the access point's profile, which is based upon the day and time of day of the attempted access. The door will then be released if the employee has access rights. Access control software operates the door devices and releases.

A paramedic who was attacked at a hospital has welcomed security cameras being installed in ambulances. Brian Dodds injured his wrist when he was assaulted outside his ambulance as he accompanied his patient into the A&E department at Sunderland Royal Hospital. He said: “The latest development will hopefully reduce the number of attacks,” adding of the cameras: “They are very tightly monitored. Only a couple of people will be able to access them and only if an assault has occurred.” A Tensor Digital CCTV system works extremely well as a standalone system, and can also be fully integrated with any previously installed Tensor access control or visitor monitoring equipment to provide a security network that is second to none. Digital CCTV is a PC-based, multi channel video surveillance system that utilises the most advanced compression technologies to bring you the highest picture quality and video performance. The CCTV footage generated by your camera network is recorded on a dedicated digital video recorder. The DVR only records footage of activity so no "dead time" is unnecessarily stored.  

Forming part of a plan to fill a budget black hole, offers of voluntary redundancy or early retirement are to be made to all 626 staff at Tayside Police. The Scots force needs to save £9m, and identify a further £3m to pay for the last year of the current three-year pay deal for officers and staff. A spokeswoman for Tayside Police said no target has been set on the number of jobs to be shed. The cost-cutting move was approved by members of the Tayside Joint Police Board who were meeting in Perth. Tensor’s WinTA Net is an unbeatable complete Time & Attendance and integrated security management system for 20 to 10,000+ people. Access Control features include graphic maps and email alerts for all types of door, barriers, turnstiles and gates. It has Web-enabled, mobile and wireless technology, and is fully scalable – from a small single site operation to a large international global network of businesses. All frequently used methods of hours calculation are handled by WinTAnet, from different overtime rates to night shift working.  

Hundreds of state schools across England are being forced to take in more pupils than they can officially cater for, official figures suggest. All but five local councils predict that the number of primary school-age children will rise in the next four years. A statement from the Schools Ministry said the Coalition Government is focused on “addressing where there is urgent demand for more primary school places – a problem that has been looming for several years and [one] we cannot afford to ignore.” PC Clock is a simple PC based booking system from Tensor ideal for companies where each employee has access to a PC. The straightforward system also makes it ideal for a school or college. The input screen books pupils "in" and "out" and has an Analysis Module used to calculate the necessary information for the EU Working Time Directive in an employee-based system. PC Clock's analysis module consists of a scaled-down version of Tensor's acclaimed WinTA Lite time and attendance software. Ten days of free helpdesk support from the date of purchase comes with the package.

Travel misery was on the menu for the capital’s commuters at the beginning of the week following the fourth Tube strike since August. The action was over London Underground's (LU) refusal to suspend cuts plans for 12 weeks while talks are held. LU disputes the union line that plans to cut ticket office jobs will threaten safety. Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) stopped work for 24 hours at 1830 GMT on Sunday. Management of staff members at your factory, site or office is made easier with a Tensor Time and Attendance system which deals with clocking, wages, hours and payroll. Different working conditions or patterns are catered for as you can create a wide range of daily working patterns (shifts). These can run past midnight, making night shifts simple to define. The WinTAnet software has a wide range of configuration options to extract payroll information in exactly the correct format. It can share or receive information from third party applications by using readily available interface modules.

Education Secretary Michael Russell has given his "full support" to plans of two Scottish councils to merge. He has already met Midlothian and East Lothian representatives to discuss the plan. The councils have discussed the move in an attempt to save money and improve standards within their education departments. Mr Russell said: "I would welcome any ideas that will deliver education services more efficiently. I am determined to protect vital frontline services, such as schools, in the face of the spending cuts to Scottish public finances." Larger organisations would benefit from a Tensor WinTA Enterprise Time and Attendance system, which will help them perform much more efficiently. WinTA Enterprise stores information on up to 1000 production or department jobs. Employees quickly book time against these jobs using a proximity-read smart card or key fob to produce a fully costed analysis and break down of time spent on each one. Software reports show jobs that are over budget or those approaching their budget limit. Using the Auto Clockout feature, workers are automatically clocked out at a certain time.

Processing fake documents and certificates for a bogus college via a legal company resulted in Syed Ahmed being imprisoned for eight and a half years. Ahmed, who was listed as a lecturer in law, was the accredited legal adviser for the company, called Virgil Legal Services Ltd. He was using this firm as a front for an illegal immigration operation which netted millions of pounds for the London based gang. The London Immigration Crime team said a financial asset stripping investigation is taking place. Tensor technology prevents your company falling victim to a fake ID document or certificate being used by a visitor. When visitors, especially contractors, attend your site it is often necessary to inspect identification papers. A visitor monitoring system enables you to both check and scan in visitors’ documents, like licences and vehicle information, thus creating a soft-copy version that can be viewed at a later date. This feature is very useful if questions about a person's identity or credentials later arise, as you have effectively protected yourself against any recriminations.  

A man appeared before magistrates over a case of ‘cowboy clamping’ following an incident when a doctor paid £120 after his car was clamped and reported suspicions about the matter to police. London resident Joseph Ty Hedley Fox was accused of engaging in conduct when not licensed by the private security industry legislation which governs car clamping. He was cleared after a trial because it was uncertain the money paid by the doctor was to remove the clamp or was simply a parking fee. The Tensor range of automatic car park barriers is the number one solution 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 parking barriers cater for all sizes of premises and are highly adaptable. Their features include: an extruded aluminium barrier arm, high visibility red reflective striping, arm lengths of up to six metres; and require no routine maintenance. The barriers are also capable of operating alongside any installed control or ticketing systems.  

Another local authority is seeking to take a large slice off its total workforce following the Government’s deficit-busting Spending Review. Lancashire County Council needs to trim £180 million from its budget over the next three years. The GMB union said it is very hard to see where new jobs were to come from to replace the potential 6,000 job losses. It added: “It is also very difficult to see that there will be enough volunteers prepared to leave their jobs in the absence of alternative employment." Featuring comprehensive user-definable working patterns, rosters and shifts, Tensor offers a complete smart card Time and Attendance system. WinTAStart.NET includes a T32xx Smart Card clocking station, 25 Smart Cards, software including all the features to manage time and attendance recording for up to 50 people. Clocking station features include: 1MB on-board memory; a 6 line x 21 character / graphics display; a control output which can operate an electronic lock or shift change siren; and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in case of mains failure.