Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions
FAR 52.243-3 Changes-Time-and-Materials or Labor-Hours
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No flow-down mandate in the clause or in Part 43. Primes mirror it on T&M and labor-hour subcontracts so a change in the task order reaches the sub. Two corpus patterns to watch: Lockheed CORPDOC 4A and RTX condition it on contract type and leave the text alone; the CACI Corvus labor-hour subcontract rewrites it in Item 26 — 'Contractor shall be defined as Seller and Contracting Officer shall be defined as Buyer's Subcontracts Representative' AND cuts the assertion window from 30 days to TWENTY (20) days. BAE again substitutes paragraph (a) with a broader unilateral direction right.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition SEP 2000 (no alternates) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
The right to an adjustment asserted within 30 days of the change order, or the shorter window a prime template writes in, quantified in hours by labor category and in materials rather than as a lump sum
FAR 52.243-3(c)
When it is used
FAR 43.205(c): insert in solicitations and contracts when a time-and-materials or labor-hour contract is contemplated. No dollar threshold, no alternates — the clause page at FAC 2026-01 lists none. Paragraph (a) reaches seven categories: description of services, time of performance, place of performance, drawings/designs/specifications for specially manufactured supplies, method of shipment or packing, place of delivery, and amount of Government-furnished property. The adjustments in (b) run to the CEILING PRICE, the HOURLY RATES, the delivery schedule, and other affected terms — this clause never produces a lump-sum price change, which is what makes it different from 52.243-1.
Read closely
What moves under (b) is the ceiling price, the hourly rates, the delivery schedule and other affected terms — this clause never produces a lump-sum price change, which is what separates it from 52.243-1. Hours worked above the ceiling are unpaid until the ceiling is raised by modification, and the CACI Corvus labor-hour subcontract cuts the assertion window to 20 days.
The 4 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.243-3 and FAR 43.205(c); FAR Part 43 checked for subcontract language (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.