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A few companies are still ignoring the minimum wage law, research has shown. HM Revenue and Customs has the powers to issue a notice of underpayment if an employer is found to be flouting the legal threshold, which sits at £6.08 an hour for over-21s. Cases include that of a 21-year-old man who started as an apprentice mechanic four years ago and who still receives £4 an hour despite now being fully qualified. Tensor’s WinTA Time & Attendance systems cover all the requirements of a firm’s pay and clocking issues. Our state of the art software can deal with workers who have annual contracts, making it ideal for the public sector, or any other special working rules. Overtime is easily monitored with up to four different pay bands in each shift. The large colour display on Tensor's T32xx Time & Security clocking station makes it simple and easy for employees to confirm their clockings or check flexi-time hours. The T32xx includes colour LCD with video playback.  

British Transport Police have offered a £1,000 reward in return for information about cable drums taken from a rail depot. The equipment was taken in two separate incidents from Horsham in West Sussex. Two drums were stolen in the early part of last week, with a further four drums taken just over 24 hours later in a light-coloured transit van. A statement from police said cable theft had become a “major problem on the rail system”. Operated by contactless smart cards, key fobs, or biometrics, a Tensor Access system gives you full control over who is allowed access through any controlled point at any time of any day, placing it at the forefront of security solutions. It starts from low cost single door access control and goes up to a fully modular network. The T3510 is the ultimate Smart Card Access Control system for doors, car park barriers and turnstiles. The one to four door Access Control set-up, linked together, can control up to 128 doors from one PC.  

A budget backlash has begun after the Scottish Government maintained a public sector pay freeze and continued to enforce poorer pension terms after setting out its plans for the next financial year. Mike Kirby, Scottish secretary of Unison, led the protests by saying: “We’re angry at the continuation of the pay freeze which will affect hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers, who have already faced a real-term pay cut for the past two years.” Tensor time & attendance personnel systems and software handle all hours calculations and allow your employees to clock in and out extremely quickly. This information can be exported in many forms to allow integration with existing payroll software. Fully customisable reports can also be generated by the personnel software. These reports can be exported to a variety of formats including HTML and CSV, ideal for either printing or displaying within your company's intranet. A Company Cars facility for logging MOT and service dates is just one of its many features.  

An armed robber threatened a woman as she worked alone at a betting shop. The criminal carried a knife and demanded she hand over money from the till at the branch of Ladbrokes in Edinburgh. Police need help in identifying the man responsible, and a spokesperson said: "This was an incredibly frightening experience for the store worker, who was alone within the premises at the time of the robbery.” One of the ways Tensor can help prevent crime taking place at your premises is a bundled ID card visitor control system. Tensor have put together a range of options, guaranteed to suit your business requirements depending on size and number of employees. For offices or businesses like the above example with fewer employees, the Small Business ID Card System can cope with a high level of throughput. Complete with a mid-range, single-sided Magicard printer and 100 ID cards, you can get started printing your ID badges straight away. It also contains VMS Small Business Edition Software and a digital camera.  

"Great news" was the verdict of Network Rail, and unions said it was a "good deal". Both parties were talking about a special arrangement in working conditions that ensured no disruption for people commuting to next summer’s UK Olympics. "At this time of austerity we think that £500 extra payments and 10% on the basic represents a good deal and proves that strong union organisation can deliver for the members," said rail union RMT after negotiations ended. Tensor's world-class web enabled Time and Attendance management systems are a great deal for your organisation in calculating pay and hours, whether basic or overtime. WinTA Net is the best there is for working out shift patterns, absence planning and entitlement management, and Working Time Regulations. Workers paid on an annual contract basis can be handled by the annualised hours procedures and reports within WinTAnet. Each type of work pattern can be set up to override the normal pattern and use a specific shift on public holidays.  

A portable toilet was stolen from a council yard by thieves using a large crane. The yard in Stirlingshire was broken into, and Central Scotland Police said a portable toilet and a metal store hut were taken using a large vehicle with a mounted crane. Sometime between Monday and Thursday last week the secure gates were forced open. Officers said the site is on the A81 which is a busy road, so someone must have seen something suspicious. Tensor can supply many solutions for tightening security around yards. As well as access control, barrier, turnstile and visitor monitoring networks we can install digital CCTV camera and recording systems. 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. Compared to analogue CCTV, a far greater number of digital evidence quality CCTV cameras can be connected to your network and viewed, all through a single PC monitor.  

Police have investigated a break-in and fire at an electricity sub-station which caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage. Mersey Fire Service were called in the middle of the night by a local resident who saw smoke coming from the depot in Liverpool. A Merseyside Police statement said: “The fire has caused thousands of pounds of damage and put people's safety at risk. Someone has also stolen the copper piping from the sub-station.” If only the ultimate in Access Control is good enough for your premises then look no further than the Tensor T34xx Smart Card scanner. It combines the latest generation of Tensor’s Smart Card electronics with a fingerprint reader. This product is for those who want the absolute peace-of-mind, certainty and the assurance that only the right people can gain access to your sensitive or dangerous areas. The T34xx is compatible with Tensor’s Smart Card Access scanners, allowing you to mix fingerprint reading and non-fingerprint reading scanners on the same security network.  

The government's social policy review indicated that parents of children in England who regularly play truant could have their benefits cut. Prime Minister David Cameron said during a speech about education that discipline and rigour were needed to mend a "broken society”. He commented: "But restoring discipline is also about what parents do. That's why I have asked our social policy review to look into whether we should cut the benefits of those parents whose children constantly play truant.” PC Clock is a simple PC based booking system from Tensor that can help improve behaviour in schools with its small scale attendance monitoring. It is ideal for organisations like schools where each pupil has access to a PC. Automatic and definable reports showing clockings can be viewed and printed. The reports can be customised using the Report Generator and can be printed automatically at any given time of the day. WinTA PC Clock can be used for any number of users and there is no need for additional licences.  

Fears of job losses have been played down at a major steel company which has stopped production at its works for one week. The firm Tata said it had to realign capacity with demand, hence the production halt at Llanelli in Wales. The industry is usually an indicator for the wider economy. “We have been weathering a prolonged storm,” a Tata spokesman commented, adding: "We are very concerned about the bottom line. The indicators are very worrying indeed.” Contactless smart cards which offer the fastest throughput available are used to operate Tensor’s time and attendance, access control and visitor monitoring systems. All Tensor proximity read smart cards and key fobs use the same reliable RF (Radio Frequency) reading technology. Each smart card reader transmits a 125 KHz frequency field (the electromagnetic field), which is picked up by an aerial in the smart card. The smart card microchip is a passive device which holds a unique factory encoded ID number that cannot be duplicated, making it very secure indeed.  

Britain is braced for the biggest spell of strikes for a generation. The Unite, Unison and the GMB unions are expected to announce they will ballot their members soon. This will likely happen after a debate at the TUC Congress in London where unions are poised to attack the Coalition over its proposed reforms on public sector pensions. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister heading negotiations for the Government on pension reform, said he was not trying to provoke unions into striking. Tensor's WinTA clocking and time and attendance networks deal with all aspects of worker absenteeism, including email warnings when manning levels are low. Both the WinTA Lite and WinTA Enterprise time and attendance systems can be integrated with Personnel Software which offers features that will save time and aid strategic planning. The software includes features such as: Training Information for pending courses, including locations, descriptions and notes; Letter Writer including mailmerge functionality; and Pay Reviewer including reports, projected pay increases and salary expenditure.  

A proposed cash injection for toilets in a town centre has now been swallowed up by other council budgets. Around £50,000 from an improvement fund is no longer available due to a reorganisation of Bolton Council finances. The council has already considered asking businesses to make their toilets available to the public as well as taking over the maintenance of a closed toilet block. The disused block in Horwich could be reopened and visitors could be charged 20p a time. Glass turnstiles from Tensor are part of our comprehensive gate, barrier and turnstile access control technology which can control entry to your organisation’s toilet facilities. These turnstiles will give all the benefits of an access control system yet fit seamlessly and elegantly into any high-status environment where appearance is equal to functionality. Glass turnstiles are an essential element for any corporate lobby environment and they are available in half height or full height models. They can cope with severe operating conditions and high traffic volumes.  

Metropolitan Police Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin has thanked the public for their support of the Met following the recent looting and disorder in the capital. In an open letter Mr Godwin said Londoners have helped police identify the looters and so far more than 1,000 people have been charged with offences. He added: “Individual officers have proudly told me stories of being offered cups of tea, meals, rest facilities or being applauded as they walk down the street.” Tensor can supply your depot or business with a reliable security system which will help to tackle crime. Our access control 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. Improved security and extended flow capacity ensure that your access control system is one of the most efficient available today. Smart cards offer significant time savings over equivalent swipe card systems, being read in under ¼ second.