Personal civil liability of company officers for company workplace torts

A suggested approach to improving workplace safety in the corporate context is to address the personal liability of company officers. This article considers that liability in the context of the civil law. It argues that, despite popular misconceptions about the ‘corporate veil’, directors and officers of companies may be held personally liable, under long-standing authority, for workplace injury and death. This liability may be found either in the rules of civil secondary liability governing joint tortfeasors or in the existence of a personal duty of care with respect to the safety of employees owed by company officers.