NEC ECC: Working area SCC People (14)

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts SOCC SSOCC
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The question is regarding Section 14 in the People section of the Schedule of Cost Components;

“The following components of the cost of people who are not directly employed by the Contractor but are paid for him according to the time worked while they are within the Working Areas”

Can I have an example of who this would apply too? We have many different cases where site labourers are working within the working area however are employed via agency or sub-contractors.

Who is entitled to the WAO %?

I would personally say that labours working for the contractor via agency would be entitled to the WAO%

However I would argue that if the labourers are supplied by a sub-contractor with a contract in place then they would not be entitled to the WAO% due to the opening line off the SCC

“In this schedule the Contractor means the Contractor and not his subcontractors.”

We have a Sub-Contractor providing a labour only service – would these be entitled to WAO%. My view would be no entitlement due to the above (they are sub-contractors with a subcontract contract in place)

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You do not apply WAO to subcontractors. The question really is whether you have a subcontract or a labour only supply contract. If you look at the definition of Subcontractor it covers “construct or install”, “provide a service” and “supply plant and materials”. Provision of labour only does not, in my view, fall into any of these. It could be argued that the labourers “provide a service” but that is not what the contract is about, the contract is about supplying a person who then carries on work at the direction and under the supervision of others.

Therefore, I disagree, a true labour only, supply, contract would generate WAO.

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Rob, I agree that this is the sentiment of the contract and what is found in the guidance notes. But I do remember a certain person - who could that be - putting forward a strong argument for one client that labour only subcontractors (small ‘S’) should be counted as Subcontractors (big ‘S’) !