Quick answer
Yes, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 a director is an officer and can be prosecuted personally for failing their due diligence duty. The maximum is a $600,000 fine and five years in prison for reckless conduct, $300,000 where a failure exposes someone to risk of death or serious injury and $100,000 for any other failure. The Act makes it unlawful to insure against those fines.
Director liability for health and safety in New Zealand is personal. If your business fails to keep people safe and you didn't take reasonable steps as a director to stop it, the liability is yours, your insurer can't pay it and putting the company into liquidation won't make it go away.
Most directors I speak with know that in broad terms. Fewer know what the actual numbers are, what WorkSafe looks for before it charges an officer or what the courts have said isn't enough. That's what follows, with the cases that show how it plays out.
Can a Director Be Personally Liable for Health and Safety in NZ?
A director can be personally liable for health and safety in NZ because section 44 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) puts a due diligence duty on every officer of a PCBU. A breach of that duty is a criminal offence in its own right. The company's duty and the director's duty sit side by side. WorkSafe can charge the company, the director or both.
Officers include company directors, partners, board members and anyone in a similar governance role, including in some cases a chief executive. WorkSafe's position is that someone who only advises or makes recommendations isn't an officer. The duty is to take reasonable steps to understand the business and its risks, make sure the right resources and processes are in place and used and check that they actually are.
You don't have to be a health and safety expert and you can rely on your managers and specialists. WorkSafe is clear that the reliance has to be reasonable though, meaning you know enough to ask the right questions and to challenge what you're told.
What Are the Maximum Penalties for Directors Under HSWA?
HSWA sets three levels of offence for failing a health and safety duty. The maximums depend on the offence and on who's charged.
| Offence | Officer or individual PCBU | Company or other PCBU | Worker or other individual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reckless conduct, section 47 | $600,000 fine, 5 years in prison or both | $3 million fine | $300,000 fine, 5 years in prison or both |
| Failure that exposes someone to risk of death or serious injury, section 48 | $300,000 fine | $1.5 million fine | $150,000 fine |
| Failure to comply with a duty, section 49 | $100,000 fine | $500,000 fine | $50,000 fine |
On top of a fine the court can order reparation to the people harmed, a contribution to WorkSafe's prosecution costs and other orders such as training or adverse publicity. In practice the reparation and costs can be as large as the fine itself.
Can a Director Go to Jail for a Health and Safety Breach in NZ?
A director can go to jail for a health and safety breach in NZ, however only for the most serious offence. Imprisonment is available under section 47, where a person with a duty, without reasonable excuse, does something that exposes someone to a risk of death or serious injury or illness and is reckless about that risk. The other two offences carry fines only.
Recklessness is a high bar that means knowing about the risk and carrying on regardless, not simply getting something wrong. Both cases below were charged under section 48, where the maximum for an officer is $300,000.
Real Cases Where NZ Directors Were Held Personally Liable
Gibson v Maritime New Zealand
Tony Gibson, the former chief executive of Ports of Auckland, was convicted in the District Court in November 2024 under section 48 for failing his due diligence duty as an officer. In February 2025 he was fined $130,000 and ordered to pay $60,000 towards prosecution costs. In March 2026 the High Court dismissed his appeal against both the conviction and the sentence in Gibson v Maritime New Zealand [2026] NZHC 813.
What makes the case important for every director is that Gibson wasn't idle. The port ran a large safety programme. The courts found he knew about the risk to workers under suspended loads. Training on the exclusion zone rule was confusing and inconsistent and compliance was poor, particularly on night shift. He didn't know about the night shift shortcuts, however the courts found the monitoring of how work was actually done wasn't good enough to tell him. Doing a lot wasn't the same as checking that the controls on the critical risk worked. I've written about what Gibson means for boards in more depth.
The sole director whose company was liquidated
In a 2022 case WorkSafe prosecuted the sole director of a painting company after a subcontractor fell from a roof. The company went into liquidation 49 days after the fall and WorkSafe charged the director personally under sections 44 and 48. The court ordered $100,000 in reparation to the worker's family. No fine was imposed because of the director's financial circumstances.
Does Liquidating the Company Protect a Director?
Liquidating the company doesn't protect a director from health and safety liability. WorkSafe's message from the painting company case was that directors keep their responsibilities and can still be held to account personally after the company has gone. The director's due diligence duty is personal and the prosecution follows the person, not the company's bank account.
Can Insurance Pay a Director's Health and Safety Fine?
Insurance can't pay a director's health and safety fine in NZ. Section 29 of HSWA makes any insurance policy that covers a fine or infringement fee under the Act of no effect. It's also an offence to offer, take out or pay out on that kind of cover. The penalty for breaching section 29 is up to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for anyone else.
What insurance can still cover is the rest of the bill. Statutory liability policies commonly cover legal defence costs and reparation orders, as insurers such as Vero say on their own product pages. Policies differ. Ask your broker to confirm in writing what your statutory liability and directors and officers cover will and won't pay if WorkSafe charges you personally.
What Doesn't Count as Due Diligence?
The courts and WorkSafe have been consistent about what won't protect an officer:
- Delegating the whole thing to a health and safety manager and never asking how it's going
- Receiving a board report full of injury rates and training percentages without anything on whether critical controls work
- Running a busy safety programme without checking the controls on the risks that could kill someone
- Knowing about a serious risk and not following up on what was done about it
- Assuming that a policy existing means the policy is followed
The common thread running through all of these is verification. An officer who can show they asked the hard questions, got evidence back and acted on what it showed is in a very different position from one who can only show they were told everything was fine.
How Directors Can Reduce Their Personal Exposure
The practical steps aren't complicated, however they need to happen on a regular rhythm and leave a record:
- Know your critical risks by name, the handful of things in your business that could kill or seriously injure someone
- For each one, know the control that matters most and who owns it
- Ask for evidence that those controls were checked in the field, not just a report saying they're fine
- Get out to site yourself and look at the work as it's actually done
- Follow up every serious incident and near miss to the actual fix, not just the investigation report
- Make sure the board minutes record the questions asked, the answers given and the actions agreed
- Get an independent view of your reporting at least once a year so you aren't marking your own homework
The free Officer Due Diligence Check will show you where your own gaps are.
Are Volunteer Directors Liable for Health and Safety?
Volunteer directors on a charity or club board have the same due diligence duty as paid directors. WorkSafe's guidance is that they can't be prosecuted for failing to meet it. They can still be prosecuted for failing to take reasonable care of their own and others' safety at the workplace or for not following reasonable health and safety instructions, in the same way as anyone else at work.
What Changes for Director Liability After 1 April 2027?
The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 restates the officer duty around understand, ensure and verify and makes clear it applies to the governance role only. That helps owner-operators who also work in the business. The officer duty doesn't attach to the hours they spend on the tools, although their duties as a worker still do. For directors of larger organisations the duty stays substantially the same and the verification the courts found missing in Gibson is exactly what the new wording names. My guide to the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 covers every change and what to do before it starts.
Frequently Asked Questions About Director Liability for Health and Safety
Are directors personally liable for health and safety in New Zealand?
Yes, directors are officers under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and owe a personal due diligence duty. Failing it is a criminal offence and a director can be prosecuted whether or not the company is also charged.
What is the maximum fine for a director under HSWA?
The maximum is a $600,000 fine, five years in prison or both, for reckless conduct under section 47. A failure that exposes someone to risk of death or serious injury carries up to $300,000 and any other failure up to $100,000.
Can a director be jailed for a health and safety breach?
Only for reckless conduct under section 47, where the director knew of a risk of death or serious injury and was reckless about it. The other health and safety offences carry fines only.
Can insurance cover a WorkSafe fine?
No, section 29 of HSWA makes insurance against health and safety fines and infringement fees of no effect and makes it an offence. Legal defence costs and reparation can usually be insured under a statutory liability policy.
Can WorkSafe prosecute a director after the company is liquidated?
Yes, WorkSafe prosecuted the sole director of a painting company personally after the company was liquidated following a fall. The court ordered $100,000 in reparation.
Are volunteer board members liable for health and safety?
Volunteer officers have the same due diligence duty as paid officers, however WorkSafe's guidance says they can't be prosecuted for failing to meet it. They can be prosecuted for not taking reasonable care at the workplace.
Can a director rely on their health and safety manager?
WorkSafe says officers can rely on managers and specialists where the reliance is reasonable and the officer knows enough to question and challenge what they're told.
Sources: WorkSafe, Offences and penalties under HSWA; WorkSafe, Officers' due diligence; WorkSafe, Information for officers who are volunteers; WorkSafe, Liquidation no escape from health and safety accountability; HSWA section 29; Global Workplace Insider, Gibson High Court decision; Vero, Statutory liability. This post is general guidance, not legal advice.
About the Author
Matt Jones is the founder of Advanced Safety and a HASANZ-registered health and safety consultant. He's a Professional Member of NZISM and holds a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health.
He advises boards, directors and executives on officer due diligence and critical risk under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. His book Raise the Standard: Why Good Organisations Go Blind and How Leaders Restore Visibility sets out G.A.P.E.™, F.E.E.D.™ and S.A.F.E.T.Y.™, a leadership architecture framework for high-risk organisations.
He created the Compliance Compass audit and hosts the Health & Safety Unplugged podcast.
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Governance Advisory
Is the health and safety report your board reads actually true?
Your officers carry a personal due diligence duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Governance Advisory puts an independent view over your critical risk reporting every month and a short paper in front of your board every quarter, giving the people who sign off a true picture of what’s going on.
Start with the free Officer Due Diligence Check or read the Colliers Project Leaders case study.
Latest update: 8 November 2026
