A Contractor has requested to change the Works Information to suit their working method/ availability of materials. It is an Option A NEC3 contract, Employers design.
Cl 60.1 (1) only refers to a Contractor requesting a change involving his design.
If the proposed change to the Works Information is accepted is this a compensation event? There is no amend to the standard clause to allow for the contractor to propose a change to an Employers design.
Under NEC3 yes this would be a compensation event, and if it will be easier/cheaper for the Contractor to install this alternative then the Employer gets the full value of the saving. This is not very well balanced in NEC3 and begs the question why would a Contractor suggest value engineering if the Employer gets the full value of the saving as a (negative) CE?
This has now been addressed in NEC4 where any such saving will be shared in accordance with the “value engineering percentage” included in contract data part 1 even where it is a Client design scheme.