Lift Maintenance and Servicing SWMS

Suits lift and escalator technicians, building maintenance firms and facility managers who service passenger lifts and escalators. It covers planning and isolation, machine room, car top and pit work, landing doors and interlocks, escalator trusses, handling parts and oil, entrapment callouts, and testing and return to service. Installing a new lift is a different job.

Routine lift and escalator servicing is plant maintenance, and a SWMS is required by law only for high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 299). It becomes high risk construction work when the job is part of construction work on the building, for example a lift modernisation in a refurbishment. Then tick the items that apply: a fall of more than 2 metres down the well, work on or near energised electrical equipment, and a confined space. Otherwise this works as a written safe work procedure for your technicians.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Lift Maintenance and Servicing SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job, notify the building and set up the work area” to “Test, record and return the lift or escalator to service”. The hazards and controls include:

• Falls down the lift well from the car top or landings
• Crushing between the car or counterweight and the shaft
• Unexpected movement of the car, door or escalator step
• Electric shock and failed isolation
• Entrapment of passengers and manual release
• Pit hazards: water, fumes and falling objects
• Door interlock bypass left in place
• Hands caught in sheaves, ropes and door operators
• Escalator truss and step gap entry
• Asbestos in old brake linings and lagging
• Heat and noise in machine rooms
• Manual handling of door panels and counterweight fillers

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Lift and escalator technicians trained and assessed as competent on the equipment type and the maker’s service, inspection and emergency release procedures (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for lift or escalator work)
• A competent person carries out maintenance, inspection and testing of the plant (WHS Regulation s 213)
• Electrical work licence for anyone who performs or supervises electrical work, and an electrical contractor licence for the business (Electrical Safety Act 2002 ss 55 and 56)
• Training in the fall arrest or travel restraint equipment used, and in the tested rescue procedures (WHS Regulation ss 79 and 80)
• Trained in lock-out and isolation, and in the entrapment release procedure for each lift model
• General construction induction training card (white card) where the work is construction work on a construction site, and the site induction
• High risk work licence in the dogging class or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3 items 4 to 7) for anyone who slings a load or directs a plant operator in moving a load that is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work)
• First aid equipment and facilities, and trained first aiders as the work and site need (WHS Regulation s 42)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 208, 210, 213 (plant), s 236 (lifts), s 237 (records) and Schedule 5 (registration of lifts and escalators)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 78 to 80 (falls and rescue), ss 42, 43 and 48 (first aid, emergency plan, remote or isolated work), ss 56 to 58 (noise)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Confined Spaces Code of Practice 2021 (if a pit or shaft meets the definition)
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): ss 18, 55 and 56 (electrical work and licences)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 195 to 200 (energised work, testing and lock-off)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (16 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: safety boots with non-slip soles; hard hat with a chin strap in the shaft, pit and car top; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: person trapped or crushed by the car, counterweight, door or escalator, fall or a person suspended in a harness and electric shock
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed November 2026.