NEC ECC: Labour Agencies - 'People' or 'Subcontractor'

We are currently in dispute with a Client on an Option E. At FA stage (great timing!) he has now stated that labour agencies are in fact subcontractors and not People (14), therefore WAO% does not apply. I believe him not to be correct in his statement. What do you reckon?
I believe that People 14 covers labour agencies correctly and that the definition of subcontractors does not apply to labour agencies.

Labour only supplier falls outside of the definition of a “Subcontractor” within clause 11.2. NEC4 makes it very clear that is the case with a rewording of the definition, but NEC3 definition already makes it pretty clear.

The NEC3 guidance notes for this clause clearly state “Labour-only subcontractors are not Subcontractors under this definition”.

Agreeing with Glenn, there is a very simple test to apply, did the labour only supplier take on responsibility for quality of work or an aspect of delivery over and above providing labour to the site. If the answer is yes they did take a broader responsibility then they may be a subcontractor (as they probably aren’t actually labour only supplier) if not then they cannot realistically be a subcontractor.

To the extent there is any doubt in the contract (and there is a little in NEC3 at least) this test should avoid it.