Duty holder (WHS)

A duty holder is anyone the Work Health and Safety Act places a health-and-safety duty on. The duties overlap deliberately, so on a building site several duty holders carry duties for the same risks at the same time.

The main categories are:

• PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking): the primary duty holder, owing the broad duty to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. A builder’s company is a PCBU; so is each subcontractor.
• Officers: people who make or influence significant business decisions (directors, and others with that influence). They owe a due diligence duty to ensure the PCBU complies.
• Workers: employees, subbies, labour hire, apprentices, volunteers. They must take reasonable care for their own and others’ safety and follow reasonable instructions.
• Others: designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers, and installers of plant, structures, or substances each owe upstream duties (a designer must design so the structure can be built, used, and maintained safely).

The key idea is overlapping, non-transferable duties: more than one duty holder can owe a duty for the same matter, a duty holder cannot contract out of or transfer its duty, and each must do what is within its own capacity to influence and control.

For a builder the practical point is to know which duty hats you wear (almost always PCBU, often an officer of your company, and a coordinating PCBU when others work on your site) and that signing a subbie up does not shed your duty. You must consult, cooperate, and coordinate with the other PCBUs on site on shared risks, because each of you remains a duty holder for them. See the WHS Act overview.

Also known as: Person with a WHS duty.

Category: WHS / Duties.

Related

• PCBU
• Duty of care

See also

• WHS Act overview

References

• Model Work Health and Safety Act, Safe Work Australia (verified 2026-06-04)

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Last updated: 2026-06-04. Verified: 2026-06-04. Quarterly review for currency.