NEC Option B. If the Contractor is working from 9am to 5pm with 15 men then at 11am 5 men are instructed to carry out extra repair works for 2 hours. The other 10 men have to stand and wait till extra works are complete.We then still complete the days work by 5pm as programmed. Do we have a CE for the 5 men on extra works ? And do we have a claim for the 10 men standing down for 2 hours?
The idea of any compensation event is that you get recovery for any cost and time implications so it does not put you in a worse position after the event as you were before the event.
The forecast cost following an instruction would have been the 5 men for 2 hours. That would be the basis of the CE quotation. Had the 10 men had to come back the next day to finish the initial job then that could have been part of the quote, but given they didn’t I don’t think you can claim anything extra.
Had that CE not been instructed, all 15 men would have finished, and unlikely I assume to have been able to do anything else.
Really simply - the instruction to stop work and do something different for 2 hours is a compensation event. Any cost resulting from that should be taken into account as well as any programme implications - nothing more nothing less. Fee would then also be added to any forecast Defined Cost. Contractors are not meant to make a fortune as a result of changes, but equally not lose out in anyway. Had the 2 hours meant the original work did not get done and all 15 operatives had to come back the next day to finish off and there was no other work that could be done, then the 2 hour CE could also have needed to include all 15 operatives for a full day as that was part of the effect of the initial instruction.