Man Cage & Work Cage Operations SWMS
Man cage and work cage operations — pre-use inspection, attachment to crane hook, communication protocols, maximum occupants, lift plan, and emergency descent procedure.
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
Man cage and work cage operations involve suspending workers from a mobile or tower crane hook to perform tasks at heights where conventional access (scaffold, EWP, fixed platform) is not reasonably practicable. This work captures pre-use cage inspection, certified shackle and sling attachment to the crane hook block, dogger-to-crane-operator communication, occupant and tool load calculations, lift plan execution, and emergency descent rigging. Under WHS Regulation 2025 s.225, suspending a person from a crane is prohibited unless no safer means of access exists and the work is performed using an engineer-certified man cage compliant with AS 1418.17:1996. The activity is also a High Risk Construction Work trigger under Schedule 1, mandating a SWMS that is prepared in consultation with workers, available at the workplace, and reviewed if controls fail or conditions change. Failure to hold a current SWMS before commencing the lift is a stop-work matter for WHS regulators.
Hazards identified
7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Multiple occupants fall from height resulting in fatal traumatic injury and corporate manslaughter prosecution
Cage drops without warning causing fatal fall, dropped object strike, and structural damage below
Occupants thrown against structure causing crush injuries, ejection over guardrail, and equipment damage
Uncontrolled movement, cage striking structure or services, occupant entrapment between cage and building
Fall from height despite cage integrity, resulting in fatal injury and breach of fall prevention duty
Head and crush injuries to ground personnel, public liability exposure, regulator-issued prohibition notice
Occupants disoriented or struck against structure, crane stability compromised, lift abort emergency triggered
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Elimination — Reassess access hierarchy and use scaffold, EWP, mast climber or permanent platform wherever the task can be performed without suspending workers from a crane hook.
- 2Elimination — Pre-fabricate components at ground level and lift as assemblies so that occupied cage time aloft is reduced to zero or minutes only.
- 3Substitution — Substitute the man cage lift with a knuckle boom EWP, spider lift or suspended BMU where reach, load and access envelope permits safe equivalent.
- 4Engineering — Use only an engineer-certified cage compliant with AS 1418.17:1996 with current annual inspection tag, secondary safety sling, and positive-locking shackle to hook.
- 5Engineering — Fit free-fall lockout on the crane winch, slew brake engaged during stationary work, and load moment indicator set to occupied-lift derated capacity.
- 6Engineering — Install internal full-height mesh, toe boards, lanyard anchor points rated 15kN, and tethered tool lanyards to eliminate dropped object pathways.
- 7Administrative — Issue lift plan signed by crane supervisor, hold pre-start SWMS sign-on, verify dogger C0 and crane operator C2/C6 licences, and confirm exclusion zone barricading.
- 8Administrative — Cease lift if wind exceeds 10 m/s at hook height, visibility drops below 100m, electrical storms approach within 10km, or radio comms degrade.
- 9Administrative — Limit occupants and tool load to certified plate capacity, conduct trial lift unoccupied to working height, and rehearse emergency descent before personnel board.
- 10PPE — Each occupant wears compliant hard hat with chin strap, Type 1 full body harness with twin lanyard anchored inside cage, hi-vis, gloves, and impact eyewear.
Applicable Codes of Practice
Prohibits suspending a person from a crane unless no safer alternative exists; triggers mandatory engineer-certified cage, lift plan and SWMS.
Sets structural, capacity-plate, lifting attachment and secondary safety sling requirements for the cage; certification must be current and tagged.
Specifies trial lift, occupant briefing, dogger-operator communication, exclusion zone management and emergency descent rigging duties for the PCBU.
Crane operator and dogger must hold current licence class matching crane configuration; verification recorded against the SWMS sign-on register.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
Occupants are suspended from a crane hook at heights routinely exceeding 2 metres, creating a continuous fall-from-height exposure throughout the lift cycle.
PCBU must prepare the SWMS in consultation with workers, make it available on site, review it after any incident, and retain records for two years post-completion. Penalties for non-compliance are substantial and indexed; current maximum follows the prevailing WHS schedule.
Who this is for
- →Crane crews on commercial high-rise construction sites
- →Riggers and doggers servicing wind turbines and telecoms towers
- →Industrial maintenance contractors on refineries and processing plants
- →Shutdown and turnaround contractors in mining and infrastructure
What you receive
- ✓Editable DOCX template — Microsoft Word compatible
- ✓State-specific WHS legislation schedule (NSW/VIC/QLD/SA/WA/TAS/NT/ACT)
- ✓Hazard register with risk ratings + hierarchy-of-control mapping
- ✓Worker sign-on register, pre-start checklist, and incident escalation flow
Worked example
On a 24-storey commercial tower project, the rigging crew is tasked with bolting an exhaust cowl to the lift overrun roof — a one-off task where no scaffold tie-in is available and an EWP cannot reach the cantilevered position. At 6:30am the crane supervisor opens the Man Cage & Work Cage Operations SWMS at the pre-start brief, walking the dogger, two riggers, and the tower crane operator through each hazard line. The dogger flags that overnight wind forecasts show gusts at hook height near the 10 m/s abort threshold; the SWMS administrative control directs the team to defer the lift until 9am when winds drop. The riggers verify cage certification tag (current within 12 months), inspect the secondary safety sling and positive-locking shackle, and confirm twin-lanyard harness anchor points. Each worker signs the SWMS register against their HRW licence numbers. A trial lift is performed unoccupied to working height. During the occupied lift, one rigger identifies a dropped-object risk from a loose spanner — they pause work, retrieve a tool lanyard from the cage emergency kit referenced in the SWMS, and tether the tool before continuing. The supervisor annotates the SWMS field-change log, signs it, and the lift completes without incident. The signed SWMS is filed against the project safety register for the two-year retention period.
Related legislation
- WHS Act 2011 (model)
- WHS Regulation 2025
- Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces CoP