Safe Work Method Statements

In Australia, employers have a primary duty of care to protect, at least as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees and others in the workplace. The first step in promoting health and safety in the workplace is the appropriate identification and control of foreseeable hazards and risks.

Duty of care

Any person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) who carries out high-risk construction work has specific legal obligations under work health and safety legislation. One of the main obligations is the need to create and undertake work according to Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS). For instance, in Queensland, the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 mandates that a PCBU must:

• Prepare a Safe Work Method Statement before starting the proposed work
• Ensure that high risk construction work follows the SWMS
• Give a copy of the SWMS to the principal contractor before the work begins
• Review and revise the SWMS as necessary
• Retain a copy of the SWMS until the construction work is completed, and have it readily available for inspection

A SWMS describes the logical sequences of a work activity, lists necessary manpower, skills and resources, identifies any potential hazards, and describes control measures to mitigate the risks. Breaking down activities into basic steps allows for a comprehensive risk assessment and helps workers who are unfamiliar with the task and the potential hazards. When preparing a SWMS, the PCBU needs to walk a fine line between being specific enough to avoid the potential for deviation and not being so detailed that the document is unwieldy in practice.

Safe work method statement

The primary function of the SWMS is to help everyone in the workplace to understand the health and safety requirements when undertaking high-risk construction work. A SWMS prompts employers to consider potential workplace health and safety hazards. It is an effective training tool and should be used for the induction of new workers. These documents allow employers to publicly commit to compliance with health and safety duties, and more importantly, minimises the risk of injuries in the workplace.

A SWMS outlines the steps in an activity, the hazards and risks that come with completing these steps, the safety control measures that must be followed, and the person in the workplace who is responsible for managing the safety risk. A SWMS can be more specific (covering a single task) or broader (covering a project with many different tasks, for example, building demolition).

The SWMS needs to be easily accessible by anyone in the workplace. It should be dated, and provide the PCBU’s details, such as their name, address and ABN, and identify those who are responsible for implementation, supervision and compliance with the SWMS. For construction projects, the statement should also name the principal contractor and the address where the construction work will be carried out. Some SWMS name the workers who were consulted during the drafting of the statement, and contain their signature to acknowledge their participation in the consultation process.

When preparing a SWMS, the employer should consult with health and safety representatives and workers across the organisation to understand the potential hazards of each task. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to preparing these statements. The document should be site-specific as the hazards of an activity in one workplace will differ from every other workplace.

Enforcing compliance with SWMS

It is not enough for a company to merely create a SWMS, they must ensure that employees follow them. All workers in a company should be trained to properly follow a SWMS, otherwise, there can be serious consequences. In this way, the Magistrates Court of Victoria recently convicted a Victorian building and construction company for a breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Vand Builders Pty Ltd was fined $25,000 after a worker sustained traumatic and permanent injuries from falling from a 2.1m high platform. Notably, the Magistrates Court held that while the company had prepared a SWMS, it was not being followed when the accident occurred.

All duty holders involved in any high-risk construction work are responsible for ensuring that the work is undertaken according to the SWMS. At the first sign that the work is deviating from the SWMS, the duty holder needs to stop work immediately (or when safe to do so) and only resume according to the SWMS. Employers are particularly responsible for ensuring that employees are following the contents of the SWMS. They should regularly review workplace SWMS as new hazards arise and new ways to minimise risk occur. For advice about drafting a SWMS and the potential legal risks associated with breaches of work health and safety legislation, contact the team at Go To Court Lawyers on 1300 636 846.