Can the client stand the contractor down for weather if weather risk is contractors responsibility

has the client the right to stand down a contractor for weather if the weather risk is the responsibility of the contractor.

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Under Clause 34 of ECC the Project Manager may instruct the Contractor to stop work. Under Clause 60.1(4) this is, however, a Compensation Event.

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Dave, thanks for the reply. However, the client insist weather is contractors risk and wont pay the CE so not sure where this leaves me.

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It’s not a weather CE - that would be clause 60.1(13).

The instruction to stop is a CE under 60.1(4) - if the PM or Supervisor gave that instruction then it seems to me it must be a CE. The assessment of that CE is another matter, that would depend on the details of the situation.

If the instruction to stop was given because of concerns about safety, or that the quality of work would be affected, that may be another matter - is there anything in the WI/Scope that says work shouldn’t be carried out under certain conditions? The details of the event may mean that it is determined that it is assessed at zero, but that’s not to say that it isn’t a CE.

Accepting that it’s a CE under 60.1(4) is the first step.

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If the employer closes the site (no access) or issues an instruction to stop work, both are compensation events.

The employer may think that because he closed the site due to weather, it is a weather related event and values it as zero because it wasn’t a 1 in 10 event.

However, he is wrong.

Weather risk (up to a 1 in 10) is the contractors risk but the employer prevented the contractor from dealing with the risk.

It’s a CE with eot for the duration the shutdown

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