Non-Powered Hand Tools SWMS

For tradespeople, labourers, landscapers and maintenance crews who work with manual hand tools. It covers selecting and carrying tools, striking, cutting, gripping and turning, levering and digging, repetitive use and packing up.

A SWMS is legally required under the WHS Regulation (s 299) only when hand tools are used during high risk construction work, such as digging a trench deeper than 1.5 metres, work with a fall risk over 2 metres or cutting 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 non-powered hand tools SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Select tools and set up the work area” to “Clean up, pack up and store tools”. The hazards and controls include:

• Mushroomed or damaged tool heads breaking
• Missed strikes and loose heads hitting hands
• Cuts from knives, blades and sharp edges
• Spanners and screwdrivers slipping
• Dust from cutting masonry and fibre cement
• Striking buried cables, gas or water services
• Overhead power lines near long metal tools
• Trench collapse when digging
• Dropped tools from height
• Noise from striking steel
• Repetitive strain and sustained force
• Strains from heavy toolboxes and loads

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 in the safe use, inspection and care of each hand tool used, confirmed by the supervisor
• Instruction in hazardous manual task controls and safe lifting techniques
• Training in the use of a cable and pipe locator for any worker who operates one
• Competent person to confirm underground service locations before digging near them
• First aider on site, with a first aid kit and eyewash at the work area

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 304 to 306 (underground services, trenches)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 54, 55 and 315B to 315M (falling objects)
• 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 the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (digging by hand, essential services)
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• 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 Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 10 to 15 and Schedule 2 (power lines, underground lines)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines

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
• 8 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: impact-rated safety glasses, with a face shield for heavy striking or chiselling; gloves suited to the task: cut-resistant gloves for knives, snips and sharp edges, general work gloves for grip
• Emergency arrangements for: severe bleeding or amputation, eye injury and buried service struck
• 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.