Why Do You Need An SWMS Checklist?
Under current regulations, your Safe Work Method Statement should be done before any high-risk construction work gets underway. It’s a crucial document that, essentially, provides your process for identifying as well as controlling health and safety hazards and risks. Every person conducting a business or undertaking (or PCBU) needs to make sure that every job, every task is carried out according to the SWMS.
Apart from being easily accessible and easily read by all concerned, your Safe Work Method Statement (or SWMS) needs to consider the changing nature of the work environment and, when necessary, a separate SWMS should be made for every particular high-risk work. In order to be certain that your SWMS has everything it needs to guarantee safe and healthy working conditions for all, you need an SWMS checklist.
What is this checklist and why do you need to have it? This specific checklist is another document you use to go over your Safe Work Method Statement. It is a checklist that unveils whether you have left any critical detail out of your SWMS or not. Maybe you neglected to enumerate or describe other potential hazards in certain jobs? Maybe you forgot to include the SWMS requirement for Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE) to accomplish activities? Or maybe you did not fill in the contractor details?
When developing a document as fundamental as the SWMS, the PCBU bears the responsibility of being thorough and meticulous. One seemingly small detail that has been left out of the document could lead to a potential disaster. This disaster could mean failure to comply with health and safety regulations, giving your company stiff penalties, the fines for which will vary according to the severity of the offence and degree of culpability. Another potential disaster from failing to create a comprehensive SWMS is the occurrence of accidents, which could result in lost lives.
By having a Safe Work Method Statement Checklist to review this very important document, you are able to determine whether the document does indeed comply with current health and safety policies and legislation. Not only that, with a list of essential items to review on your SWMS, you ensure that no information, no activity, and no hazards (among other essential items) have been omitted.
The SWMS can be a complex document. The level of intricacy will depend on the scope and nature of the project you are doing. But whether it’s a simple SWMS or not, it helps to have a proper checklist that will let you go over your detailed work with a fine-tooth comb. So get one today — and guarantee that you have created safe and healthy working conditions for all.