Safety guide
SWMS in Victoria: when you need one and what it must say
A plain-English guide to Safe Work Method Statements for builders, trades and subcontractors.
If your crew does high-risk construction work in Victoria, a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) is not optional paperwork. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 require one before the work starts, and WorkSafe inspectors ask for it on site. Here is what you need to know.
When is a SWMS required?
A SWMS is required for any of the 19 types of high-risk construction work (HRCW). The ones that catch most small builders and trades are:
- Work where someone could fall more than 2 metres
- Work on or next to roadways, railways or near powered mobile plant
- Trenches or shafts deeper than 1.5 metres
- Work near energised electrical services, gas mains or fuel lines
- Demolition, confined spaces and work involving asbestos
- Tilt-up or precast concrete, temporary structural supports and telecommunications towers
The full list is in WorkSafe Victoria’s SWMS guidance (link below).
Who prepares it?
The employer or self-employed person doing the work prepares the SWMS. If you are a principal contractor, you need a system that makes sure no high-risk work goes ahead on your site without one – including your subcontractors’ work.
The people who do the job should help write it: your workers, their health and safety representatives and supervisors. A SWMS written in the office and never discussed with the crew is a common inspection finding.
What must it say?
WorkSafe expects a SWMS to describe the controls clearly enough that anyone on site can follow them. For each step it should name:
- The type of high-risk construction work
- The task or activity
- The hazard
- The control measures
- Who is responsible for each control
| High-risk work | Task | Hazard | Controls | Responsible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall of more than 2 m | Install roof sheeting | Falling from the roof edge | Edge protection installed and checked before work starts; harness anchored to a rated anchor point; no work in high wind | Site supervisor (named) |
| Trench deeper than 1.5 m | Lay stormwater pipe | Trench wall collapse | Trench shored or battered to engineer design; spoil kept 1 m back; ladder access every 9 m | Excavation lead (named) |
| Near powered mobile plant | Spotting for excavator | Being struck by the bucket | Exclusion zone marked; spotter in radio contact; operator stops when anyone enters the zone | Plant operator + spotter (named) |
Keep it practical. WorkSafe’s guidance says to leave out risk matrices and scores, long references to standards, and tasks that are not high-risk construction work.
Keep it on site and keep it current
- Keep a copy available where the work is happening for as long as the work runs (an electronic copy on a phone or tablet is fine).
- Review it with your workers whenever the work changes, or after an incident or near miss.
- If the SWMS is not being followed, the work must stop – immediately, or as soon as it is safe – until it complies or the SWMS is revised.
Five mistakes we see most often
- Generic, copy-paste SWMS that do not match the actual site or method
- No names against the controls
- Workers never briefed on it or asked to sign on
- Not updated when the job, plant or crew changes
- Stuffed with risk scores and standards that nobody reads
Need SWMS that pass a WorkSafe visit and a head-contractor check?
OHS Talks writes site-specific SWMS and WHS systems for builders and trades across Melbourne. Our WHS Starter package includes 2 site-specific SWMS from $1,650, and we run on-site toolbox talks from $390.
Get a quote See WHS packages