The term person conducting a business or undertaking or PCBU refers to the legal entity running the business or undertaking, and includes incorporated entities, sole traders, partners of a partnership and certain senior ‘officers’ of an unincorporated association. It also refers to the Commonwealth including its Departments, local governments and other government businesses and undertakings.
For the purposes of the anti-bullying provisions, a worker must be working in a constitutionally-covered business to be eligible to make an application. This means that not all PCBUs are covered by the anti-bullying provisions.
Public and private sector employers (including the self-employed) are the largest category of PCBU, but the term is broader and covers more than just employers – it includes principals that use contractors or subcontractors, franchisors and bailors.
A person (including a corporate entity)[1] may conduct a business or undertaking alone or with others,[2] and it is irrelevant whether the business or undertaking is conducted for profit or gain.[3]
Undertakings usually have ‘elements of organisation, systems and possibly continuity, but are usually not profit-making or commercial in nature’.[5]