Coffin Handling and Funeral Bearing SWMS

For funeral directors, funeral staff, bearers, and cemetery and crematorium crews. It follows the work from planning the carry and briefing staff and family bearers, through checking the coffin and equipment, loading, carrying on level ground, steps and slopes, and placing and lowering the coffin, with respectful wording throughout. Digging graves has its own SWMS.

Handling coffins and acting as a bearer is not high risk construction work. A SWMS is legally required under WHS Regulation s 299 only for high risk construction work, such as building or altering a vault or crypt with a fall of more than 2 metres or powered mobile plant in the work area. If that applies, tick the items that fit your job. Otherwise it works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment for hazardous manual tasks.

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

What Is Covered In Our Coffin Handling and Funeral Bearing SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the service and assess the coffin, the route and the venue” to “Pack up, return equipment and review the service”. The hazards and controls include:

• Back and shoulder strains from heavy coffins
• Coffin dropped by the bearers
• Falls on steps, slopes and wet ground
• Weight shifting to the bearers at the lower end
• Handles, trolleys or lifters failing
• Hands crushed at the hearse, catafalque or rollers
• Family bearers who are untrained or distressed
• Falls at the graveside and lowering device failure
• Leaking coffins and infection
• Heat, fatigue and worker distress
• Mourners stepping into the bearers’ path

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

• Funeral staff and bearers trained in the employer’s coffin handling procedures, in team lifting, and in the trolleys, lifters and lowering devices in use (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation lists no high risk work licence class for carrying a coffin or using a coffin lowering device)
• Head bearer or team leader, experienced in funeral work, who plans each carry, calls the movements and can stop the carry at any time
• Competent person, for example the funeral director or a person trained in hazardous manual task assessment, who assesses each carry: the coffin’s mass, the route, steps, slopes, doors and the number of bearers (WHS Regulation s 60)
• Training in hazardous manual task risks and team handling: matching bearers by height and capability, sharing the weight, working to spoken signals, and what to do if something goes wrong (Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021)
• Staff who operate the crematorium’s coffin lifter, catafalque, conveyor or committal equipment, or a graveside lowering device, trained in it by the operator or the maker
• Cemetery or crematorium operator’s site induction and rules for vehicles, equipment and graveside work
• An adequate number of workers trained in first aid, with access to first aid equipment and facilities (WHS Regulation s 42)
• General construction induction training card (white card) only if the job is construction work, for example building or altering a vault or crypt

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld): ss 19(1) and 19(2), the health and safety of workers, and of other persons such as family members who act as bearers, must not be put at risk by the work
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 60 and Schedule 19 (hazardous manual tasks), ss 78 and 79 (risk of falls), ss 41 to 44 (facilities, first aid, emergency plan and personal protective equipment), ss 55A to 55D (psychosocial risks), s 219 (plant that lifts or suspends loads)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 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 footwear with ankle support and a non-slip sole that suits funeral dress, worn for carrying, on steps and on wet ground
• Emergency arrangements for: bearer falls or the coffin is dropped, coffin leaks or is damaged and mourner or worker collapses or is taken ill
• 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.