Cordless Power Tools SWMS

For builders, carpenters, electricians, maintenance crews and handymen who use battery-powered drills, impact drivers, saws, grinders and nail guns. It covers inspecting tools and batteries, checking for hidden services and asbestos, working at height, fitting blades, cutting and grinding, dust, noise and vibration, and battery charging and storage.

A SWMS is legally required under the WHS Regulation (s 299) only when the tool work is part of high risk construction work, such as a fall risk over 2 metres, asbestos disturbance, work near energised services or cutting, grinding or drilling that creates silica dust (tick the contaminated atmosphere item, s 291(l)); otherwise this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment.

New to SWMS? Read What is a safe work method statement?

What is covered in our cordless power tools SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Inspect cordless tools, batteries and chargers” to “Pack up and clean up”. The hazards and controls include:

• Drilling into live cables, gas or water pipes
• Asbestos in older buildings
• Falls from ladders while using tools
• Kickback and disc or blade contact
• Sparks igniting combustible materials
• Nails and fixings ricocheting from nail guns
• Respirable crystalline silica dust
• Noise from grinding and cutting
• Hand-arm vibration
• Lithium-ion battery fires and charging faults
• Accidental start-up when changing blades or bits
• Strains from carrying tools and waste

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

• General construction induction training card (white card) when working on a construction site
• Site induction
• Training or demonstrated competency in each cordless tool used, including grinders, saws and nail guns
• Crystalline silica training where the processing of silica-containing material is high risk
• Respirator fit-testing before first use and at least yearly (as the approved silica code recommends)
• Health monitoring once a worker needs a respirator on 30 or more days in 12 months (approved silica code)
• Person holding an electrical work licence that authorises the work, to isolate circuits when live wiring cannot be ruled out
• Competent person to inspect and test chargers, leads and safety switches

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 36, 44 (control measures, PPE), ss 56 to 58 (noise)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 60 (hazardous manual tasks)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 49, 368 and Chapter 8A, ss 529A to 529J (silica dust)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 419, 422, 446 (asbestos)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 306K to 306M (ladders)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Work Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 17, 18 and 140 (unsafe equipment, leads, construction electrical equipment)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace
• AS/NZS 1716:2012 (Respiratory protective devices) and AS/NZS 1715:2009 (Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment), as named in WHS Regulation s 529B

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (14 pages), laid out on 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 glasses with side shields or goggles, worn for all tool use; face shield over safety glasses when grinding or cutting; hearing protection suited to the noise of the tool
• Emergency arrangements for: struck a live cable, serious cut or amputation and smoking, swollen or burning battery
• 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.

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