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Clauses · FAR · Insurance and liability

FAR 52.228-4 Workers' Compensation and War-Hazard Insurance Overseas

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

(a) is unconditional: the Contractor 'shall insert, in all subcontracts under this contract to which the Defense Base Act would apply but for the waiver, a clause similar to this paragraph (a) (including this sentence) imposing upon those subcontractors this requirement to provide such workers' compensation insurance coverage.' (b) carries an election: 'Unless the Contractor elects to assume directly the liability to subcontractor employees created by this clause', insert a similar paragraph (b) in all subcontracts to which the War Hazards Compensation Act would apply but for the waiver. So the war-hazard half can legitimately stop at the prime — ask which election your prime made, because it decides whether that exposure is yours or theirs. BAE's Mar 2025 template reproduces both instructions correctly. AAR's Nov 2023 table tags 52.228-4 'All Orders', which is an over-flow-down: with no waiver and no overseas performance the clause has nothing to operate on.

Form
substance — each of (a) and (b) requires 'a clause similar to this paragraph (including this sentence)', which makes the obligation self-perpetuating down the chain
Reaches
all tiers — the '(including this sentence)' construction re-propagates at every tier

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition APR 1984 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

2 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something somebody else has to issue you2

    The same day if the issuer is one of your own suppliers, months if it is an assessor or an underwriter.

    • Workers' compensation cover, or the equivalent, meeting the law of the country the overseas employees are nationals of — in force before performance starts and maintained to the end

      Owed for employees who would be under the Defense Base Act but for the Secretary of Labor's waiver

      FAR 52.228-4(a)
    • War-hazard protection matching the War Hazards Compensation Act for injury, death, capture or detention, at benefit levels set by whatever law or international agreement controls

      Owed for employees who would be under that Act but for the same waiver, and subject to reimbursement as provided elsewhere in the contract

      FAR 52.228-4(b)

When it is used

Prescribed at FAR 28.309(b): insert 'when the contract will be a public-work contract performed outside the United States and the Secretary of Labor waives the applicability of the Defense Base Act (see 28.305(d)).' Two conditions, both required — overseas performance on a public-work contract, AND a DOL waiver of the DBA. No dollar threshold, no contract-type restriction, no commercial carve-out in the prescription. This is the mirror image of its neighbor: 52.228-3 (already in the base) applies when the Defense Base Act APPLIES; 52.228-4 applies when the Defense Base Act has been WAIVED. They address different populations of employees and should not both be live for the same people — yet all seven corpus documents flow the pair down together.

Read closely

This clause is written for the case where the Defense Base Act has been waived — usually for local and third-country nationals — and its neighbor 52.228-3 covers the case where the Act applies. The benchmark in (a) is foreign law, which a domestic policy does not meet. (b) carries an election: unless the contractor above assumes the liability to subcontractor employees directly, that paragraph travels down too. The reimbursement provision (b) points at is where a capture or detention loss actually gets paid for, and (b) leaves that provision to the rest of the contract rather than stating it here.

The 6 templates that name it, with the line
233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 929105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 103255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 1063243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1984273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 614178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 1453

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.228-4 and FAR 28.309(b) (which cites 28.305(d) for the waiver) (verified 2026-08-05)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.