A common question ! Unfortunately, the contract gives you very little guidance apart from saying what it says : “amounts paid by the Contractor including those for meeting the requirements of the law”. So some costs there won’t be any debate over e.g. the direct salary, but others there will be : for instance a lump sum paid out at company level for Employer’s liability insurance is related to the number of people employed by the company but is is directly attributable to that employee ?
The Guidance Notes - written by the NEC Panel - say “the intention is that amounts paid in the Shoter SCC” for people “would cover all the specific items listed in the full SCC”.
In which case, why doesn’t it repeat it to make it a condition of the contract !
So my best advice would be :
- get as many of the anticipated people costs in as part of the tender and use the competitive process to get competitive rates i.e. do some sort of assessment of presumed hours x rate tendered. This can be for specific roles which you ask for i.e. the site agent, but could be for a generic category e.g. semi-skilled labourer (although you will then have to agree who is in what category).
- Actually incorporate - cut and paste - the full SCC People costs into the Shorter SCC People. (If you want, don’t do 1, but have this in)
However, this is of no use to you if you have already signed the contract !
So : - note that this the Guidance Notes, as they are written by the Panel, would have some weight in terms of interpretation if it ever got to the courts or even adjudication; and
- That any thing the Contractor puts forward during the contract has to be in accordance with the clause 52.1 i.e. at open market or competitively tendered prices with deductions for all discounts, rebates and taxes which can be recovered deducted. So if, for instance, they are putting forward labour only costs which you think are excessive, market test them.