Our Contractor has engaged some staff on a PSSC and is including their costs in the AFP on a ‘days worked’ basis.
The Contractor included a schedule of people rates in its tender which includes rates for people it has engaged on a subcontract basis.
According to Cl 11.2(19) these people are not Subcontractors, so I presume they fall under SCC Cl 14 (People).
Should we be paying for these staff members according to the hours they work and the rates set out in his schedule, or should we be paying the invoiced amount?
For clarification I assume that this is an NEC4 Professional Services Subcontract (PSS), with main option C. This being the case, then the inclusion of ‘people rates’ in Contract Data specifically applies to main option A and the use of the Short Schedule of Cost Components, which is used for the assessment of compensation events.
It may be that your contract has been amended to make use of such people rates, which is not uncommon. You would need to check whether this is the case as it could determine whether they should be used for the purposes of a payment, and/or compensation event, assessment under your contract (main option C).
If the people in question are engaged via a contract for services, rather than having a contract of direct employment, then, as you have said, they should be treated as such and their cost assessed in accordance with ‘amounts paid’, that is the appropriate invoiced amount.
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Sorry for the confusion Andrew.
The main contract is ECC Option C. The principal contractor has used PSSC to engage some specialist staff.
The issue is whether we use the people rates in the schedule provided by the Contractor or the actual rates the Contractor is paying the people when we assess the amount due.
Notwithstanding that it is an ECC form, the same principle would apply as to whether the people are ‘directly employed’ or ‘not directly employed’, so from what you have said it should be the ‘amounts paid’.
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Thank you Andrew.
That’s very helpful
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