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What Is a PCBU? Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking

PCBU
PCBU stands for Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking. It is the term used in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) to describe who holds the primary duty of care for workplace health and safety in New Zealand. In most cases, the PCBU is the business entity itself — the company, the partnership, or the sole trader — not the individual owner or manager. If you run a business and have workers, or your work affects other people, you are a PCBU.

The term replaced "employer" from the old Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. It is broader on purpose. Under the old law, only employers had duties. Under HSWA, the duty applies to anyone conducting a business or undertaking, whether or not they have employees. That includes sole traders, companies, partnerships, body corporates, government departments, and not-for-profits.

Who Is a PCBU?

Business type Is it a PCBU?
Company (Ltd) Yes — the company is the PCBU, not the directors personally
Sole trader Yes — the individual is the PCBU
Partnership Yes — the partnership is the PCBU
Body corporate Yes — the body corporate is the PCBU for common areas
Government department Yes
Not-for-profit or charity Yes, if it engages workers or volunteers
A worker (employee, contractor) No — workers have their own duties under section 45, but they are not PCBUs
A volunteer who is not a volunteer worker No — casual volunteers are excluded

The key distinction: the PCBU is the business, not the person running it. Directors and senior managers are "Officers" under the Act and have their own duty of due diligence (section 44), but the primary duty of care sits with the business entity itself.

What Does a PCBU Have to Do?

Section 36 of HSWA sets out the primary duty of care. Every PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of:

  • Workers who work for the PCBU or are influenced or directed by the PCBU
  • Other people who could be affected by the work — customers, visitors, members of the public

In practice, that means:

  • Providing and maintaining a safe working environment
  • Providing and maintaining safe plant and structures
  • Ensuring safe use, handling, and storage of substances
  • Providing adequate facilities for workers' welfare
  • Providing information, training, instruction, and supervision
  • Monitoring workers' health and workplace conditions
  • Maintaining the workplace so it is without risks to health and safety

This is not a checklist you complete once. It is an ongoing obligation for as long as the business operates.

PCBU vs. Officer vs. Worker

HSWA creates three main categories of duty holder. Each has different responsibilities.

Role Who Key duty HSWA section
PCBU The business entity Primary duty of care — ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable Section 36
Officer Directors, chief executives, partners — anyone who exercises significant influence over management Due diligence — take reasonable steps to understand risks, ensure resources, verify compliance Section 44
Worker Employees, contractors, subcontractors, labour hire, apprentices, volunteer workers Take reasonable care of own health and safety, cooperate with reasonable instructions Section 45

A common mistake is thinking the PCBU duty can be delegated to a "safety person." It cannot. The PCBU (the business) always holds the primary duty. Officers have a personal duty on top of that. Workers have their own separate duty. All three apply simultaneously.

Penalties for PCBUs

HSWA introduced significantly higher penalties than the old law. These apply to the PCBU as an entity.

Offence Maximum fine (PCBU)
Reckless conduct causing risk of death or serious harm (s 47) $3,000,000
Failure exposing to risk of death or serious harm (s 48) $1,500,000
Failure to comply with a duty (s 49) $500,000

Officers face personal fines up to $300,000 or imprisonment up to five years for the most serious offence. For a real example of Officer prosecution, see the Gibson v Maritime New Zealand case.

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Overlapping PCBU Duties

When multiple PCBUs share the same workplace — which is common in construction, events, shared offices, and body corporate properties — each PCBU retains its own duty. The duties overlap; they do not transfer.

Section 34 of HSWA requires PCBUs with overlapping duties to consult, cooperate, and coordinate with each other. In practice, this is managed through documents like SSSPs, contractor inductions, and shared site rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking. It is the term used in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to describe who holds the primary duty of care for workplace health and safety in New Zealand.
If you run a business in New Zealand — whether as a company, sole trader, partnership, body corporate, or not-for-profit — you are almost certainly a PCBU. The only significant exclusions are casual volunteers and workers (who have their own separate duties under the Act).
The business. For a company, the PCBU is the company entity, not the directors. Directors are "Officers" with their own due diligence duty, but the primary duty of care sits with the business itself. For a sole trader, the individual is the PCBU because the business and the person are the same legal entity.
No. You can delegate tasks, but the duty itself stays with the PCBU. Hiring a safety manager or a consultant does not transfer the primary duty of care. The PCBU remains legally responsible.
It means doing what is reasonably able to be done, weighing the likelihood and severity of harm against the availability and cost of controls. Cost comes last — you cannot argue a safety measure was too expensive without first showing the risk was low and no practical alternative existed. Section 22 of HSWA defines this.
Yes. A sole trader is a PCBU with the same primary duty of care as a company. The duty applies whether you have workers or not — you must ensure your work does not put anyone at risk. For more on what this means in practice, see our guide to sole trader health and safety.
Yes. A body corporate is a PCBU with the primary duty of care for common areas whenever anyone is engaged to work there. Committee members are Officers with due diligence duties. For the full detail, see our guide to body corporate health and safety.

Sources

  • Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, section 17: definition of PCBU. legislation.govt.nz
  • Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, section 36: primary duty of care for PCBUs. legislation.govt.nz
  • Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, section 44: due diligence duty for Officers. legislation.govt.nz
  • WorkSafe New Zealand, introduction to the HSWA: plain-language guide to PCBU duties. worksafe.govt.nz
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Reuben Brooker, Lead Consultant · Last updated: September 2026

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