PCBU Duties Under the WHS Act: What Every Business Must Know

A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) is the central duty holder under the WHS Act 2011. The term deliberately replaces the older concept of 'employer' because modern workplaces involve complex relationships beyond traditional employment. A PCBU includes companies, sole traders, partnerships, unincorporated associations, government departments, and any other entity that conducts a business or undertaking, whether or not it employs workers.

The key distinction is between a PCBU and a worker. A volunteer organisation is a PCBU in relation to any workers it engages, but an individual volunteer is not a PCBU merely by volunteering. A self-employed person is a PCBU for the purposes of their own work and any workers they engage. A franchisor may be a PCBU in relation to franchisee workers if it exercises significant control over the work. This broad definition ensures that the person with the greatest capacity to control workplace risks bears the primary duty to manage them.

Section 19 imposes the primary duty on a PCBU to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers carrying out work for the business and others who may be affected by the work. This includes providing and maintaining a work environment, plant, and systems of work that are without risks to health and safety. It includes ensuring the safe use, handling, and storage of plant, structures, and substances. It includes providing adequate facilities for the welfare of workers.

The duty extends to providing information, training, instruction, and supervision necessary to protect all persons from risks arising from work. It includes monitoring the health of workers and the conditions at the workplace for the purpose of preventing illness or injury. For PCBUs that manage or control a workplace, additional duties under section 20 require ensuring so far as is reasonably practicable that the workplace, the means of entering and exiting the workplace, and anything arising from the workplace are without risks to health and safety.

Beyond the primary duty, the WHS Regulation 2025 imposes specific obligations that operationalise the general duty for particular hazards. For hazardous chemicals, the PCBU must maintain a hazardous chemicals register, ensure safety data sheets are current and accessible, provide appropriate atmospheric monitoring where workers may be exposed above workplace exposure limits, and implement health surveillance programs for scheduled substances. For noise, the PCBU must ensure no worker is exposed above 85 dB(A) LAeq,8h or 140 dB(C) peak without controls in place.

For plant and equipment, the PCBU must ensure plant is designed, manufactured, and maintained to be without risks, that workers are trained and competent to operate it, and that high-risk plant is registered and inspected. For manual handling, the PCBU must identify hazardous manual tasks and implement risk controls. For work at heights, the PCBU must ensure work is carried out on the ground or on a solid construction so far as is reasonably practicable, and where this is not possible, must provide fall prevention devices, work positioning systems, or fall arrest systems in that order of preference.

Section 16 of the WHS Act addresses situations where more than one PCBU has a duty in relation to the same matter. Each duty holder must discharge their duty to the extent they have the capacity to influence and control the matter. This provision is critical at construction sites, shared commercial premises, and any workplace where multiple businesses operate.

A principal contractor on a construction site has overall management and control of the workplace under regulation 293 of the WHS Regulation 2025, but this does not extinguish the duties of subcontractor PCBUs. Each subcontractor retains a duty in relation to its own workers and the work it performs. Where duties overlap, PCBUs must consult, cooperate, and coordinate with each other under section 46 of the Act. Practical examples include coordinating high-risk work activities to prevent clashes (such as hot work near flammable substances), sharing hazard information when one PCBU's work creates risks for another's workers, and establishing site rules that all PCBUs must follow.

A PCBU that fails to comply with its primary duty under section 19 commits a Category 2 offence under section 32 if the failure exposes a person to a risk of death or serious injury. The maximum penalty for a body corporate is $1.73 million (2025-26 CPI-indexed). For an individual PCBU such as a sole trader, the maximum is $345,000. If the failure is accompanied by reckless conduct, the offence escalates to Category 1 with maximum penalties of $3.46 million for a body corporate and $690,000 or five years imprisonment for an individual.

Beyond financial penalties, a PCBU faces reputational damage, loss of prequalification, increased insurance premiums, and potential civil liability from injured workers. Regulators are increasingly pursuing officers personally under section 27, meaning company directors cannot hide behind the corporate veil. The trend toward personal accountability, combined with the uninsurability of WHS fines in NSW since June 2020, makes proactive compliance management an economic necessity rather than an optional overhead.