Retail SWMS

For shops, supermarkets, boutiques, hardware and homewares stores and other retailers that want a job-step safe work method statement for shop-floor work. It follows the day from opening the store through deliveries, stocking, cutting open cartons, serving customers and handling cash, dealing with aggressive customers, keeping floors safe, cleaning and closing, with emergency response. Back-office desk work and general manual handling are covered by separate SWMS.

Retail store work is not high risk construction work, so WHS Regulation s 299 does not require a SWMS for it; this works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment that you tailor to the store. If the work is part of construction work, such as shopfitting, tick the items that apply, for example a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres or movement of powered mobile plant.

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

What Is Covered In Our Retail SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Open the store and check the premises” to “Respond to fire, evacuation, injury and other emergencies”. The hazards and controls include:

• Violence and aggression from customers
• Armed robbery and cash handling
• Lone opening and closing
• Sexual harassment and psychosocial hazards
• Manual handling of stock and cartons
• Falls from step stools and ladders
• Falling stock and unstable displays
• Cuts from box cutters and strapping
• Slips on wet floors and spills
• Pallet jacks, trolleys and delivery vehicles
• Cleaning chemicals and fumes
• Fire and evacuation

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

• Induction in the store’s opening and closing procedures, cash handling, emergency procedures, evacuation routes and how to report hazards and incidents
• Training in handling aggressive and abusive customers: calm communication, de-escalation, using the duress alarm, and the store’s rules for refusing service
• Supervisor training in recognising psychosocial hazards, taking reports and responding to incidents, including reports of sexual harassment (training and supervision are matters to consider under WHS Regulation s 55D(2); a report of sexual harassment triggers a review of the control measures under s 55G)
• Training in safe manual handling, the safe use of cutters and strap cutters, and safe use of step stools and ladders for anyone who stocks shelves
• First aid equipment and trained first aiders suited to the store (WHS Regulation s 42; no fixed number applies)
• High risk work licence for the forklift truck class for anyone driving a forklift, where one is used (WHS Regulation Schedule 3)
• Workers under 18 (young workers under the Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006) are inducted, have their competency checked and are supervised before they do tasks such as using cutters, ladders or balers, or handling cash
• Competent person to inspect and test specified electrical equipment, at least once a year (at least once every 5 years if it is used only for office work), where it is not connected to a safety switch, and to test safety switches (Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 ss 138 and 139; selling goods from a shop is service work under the s 123 definitions)
• Licensed electrician for any electrical repair, installation or change to wiring (Electrical Safety Act 2002 s 55)
• Fire warden or emergency role training for the workers named in the store’s emergency plan

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 55A to 55H: psychosocial hazards and risks, determining control measures, and sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 40 to 43 and 48: workplace facilities, first aid, emergency plan, and remote or isolated work
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 60, 78 and 79: hazardous manual tasks and the risk of a fall
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 208, 210 and 213: guarding, operational controls, and maintenance and inspection of plant (balers and compactors)
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 342, 344 and 346: labelling of decanted chemicals, safety data sheets and the hazardous chemicals register (with the consumer-product exceptions in ss 344(4) and 346(4))
• WHS Act 2011 (Qld) ss 38 and 39: notifying a notifiable incident and preserving the incident site
• Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021 (step stools and ladders)
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 138 and 139 (specified electrical equipment and safety switches in service work)
• AS/NZS 3760 (In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment and RCDs), as named in the Electrical Safety Regulation 2026

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: closed-in, non-slip footwear; cut-resistant gloves for cutting cartons, removing strapping and handling broken glass
• Emergency arrangements for: robbery or threat, aggressive person and fire or evacuation
• 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.