Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) explained

What is a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU)?

A PCBU is a person conducting a business or undertaking. It's the term the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) uses for whoever holds the main duty to keep people safe at work. That might be a company, a sole trader, a partnership or a not-for-profit with workers.

The label trips people up because it doesn't mean "employer". It covers anyone running a business or undertaking, so a self-employed electrician is a PCBU too. Australia uses the same term under its own law, but the rules differ. This page covers New Zealand.

What does "conducting a business or undertaking" mean?

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 doesn't define "business" or "undertaking", so WorkSafe uses their everyday meanings. A business is an activity usually carried out to make a profit. An undertaking is non-commercial, such as the work of a council or a not-for-profit with workers. It doesn't matter whether you run it alone or with others, or whether it makes money.

That wide net is deliberate. Under HSWA, duties sit with whoever creates a risk and is best placed to manage it. A PCBU is usually an organisation, but it can be one person.

Who counts as a PCBU?

WorkSafe's examples show how wide the term runs. A PCBU can be:

• a company

• a sole trader or self-employed person

• a limited partnership

• a partner in an ordinary partnership

• a body created by legislation, such as a university

Contractors catch people out. A self-employed electrician on another business's project is a PCBU in their own right and also a worker of the business that hired them.

Who is not a PCBU?

Some people and groups fall outside the term:

• volunteer associations, meaning groups of volunteers working for a community purpose with nobody employed

• home occupiers who hire someone only for residential work, such as a plumber upgrading the house

• people who act only as a worker or officer of a business

• statutory officers, to the extent they're a worker or officer

Status can change. A volunteer group that hires an employee becomes a PCBU. One that only engages contractors doesn't, though the contractors are PCBUs themselves.

Officer, worker and employer: what's the difference?

HSWA gives duties to four groups of duty holders.

One person can hold more than one role. A sole trader is a PCBU and a worker in their own business.

So is a PCBU the same as an employer? No. An employer is one type of PCBU. A PCBU also owes duties to contractors, labour hire staff and other workers whose work it influences or directs, not only its own employees.

Primary duties under HSWA

The primary duty of care

Every PCBU must make sure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that its workers stay healthy and safe and that its work doesn't put other people at risk. WorkSafe's guide breaks that down into:

• a work environment without risks to health and safety, including psychological ones such as fatigue and work-related stress

• safe plant and structures

• safe systems of work

• safe use, handling and storage of plant, structures and substances

• adequate welfare facilities

• the information, training, instruction and supervision workers need

• monitoring of workers' health and workplace conditions

To decide what's reasonably practicable, weigh how likely harm is, how severe it could be, what you know about the risk and what controls exist. Then weigh the cost. You can skip a control only when its cost is grossly out of proportion to the risk.

Managing risks and involving workers

A PCBU has to eliminate risks so far as is reasonably practicable. If it can't, it has to minimise them. The hierarchy of controls ranks the options, and a risk assessment is the place to start. Routine WorkSafe New Zealand checklists then confirm the controls stay in place.

PCBUs also have to engage with workers on matters that directly affect them and give them real chances to help improve safety. Health and safety representatives and committees are the two established ways to do it.

Notifying WorkSafe

A PCBU must tell WorkSafe as soon as possible about a notifiable event arising from its work. That means a death, a notifiable injury or illness or a notifiable incident, even when emergency services attend. The PCBU that manages or controls the workplace must also keep the site undisturbed until an inspector says work can resume. The exceptions are steps to help an injured person or make the site safe.

Records of notifiable events must be kept for at least five years.

Managing overlapping duties on shared sites

More than one PCBU often has a duty for the same worker, site or risk. Construction sites, shopping centres and multi-tenant buildings are common examples. So are contracting chains, even when the PCBUs never share a site.

HSWA requires PCBUs with overlapping duties to consult, co-operate and co-ordinate with each other, so far as is reasonably practicable. That avoids doubling up and closes gaps, such as each PCBU assuming the other has dealt with a risk.

You can't contract out of your duties, but you can agree reasonable arrangements about who does what. Each PCBU's share depends on how much influence and control it has over the matter, not on how big it is. The head contractor or building owner usually carries more of the load.

Agree these things up front:

• what work each PCBU will do, and when and where

• who will manage which risks, and how

• who will share facilities such as first aid

• who will notify WorkSafe if a notifiable event happens

• how you'll check progress as the work continues

Contractor management and safety inductions turn those agreements into daily habits.

What the 2026 amendment changes

From 1 April 2027, the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 splits PCBUs into small and large. A small PCBU has fewer than 20 workers for at least nine months of the financial year. It manages critical risks rather than every risk, but it still has to provide welfare facilities such as first aid and washing facilities. Larger PCBUs manage all risks, with critical risks first.

Contractors, labour hire staff and regular volunteers all count towards the 20, so check your headcount. The amendment also puts critical risks first across the Act.

Penalties for failing these duties

PCBUs that fail their duties face maximum fines of $3 million for an organisation and $600,000 or five years in prison for a self-employed PCBU, both for reckless conduct, according to WorkSafe.