29 In my view this is a very serious breach of the Act. Mr Stephenson had no experience in working around operating machines. He was seventeen years of age, and had been employed by the defendant for a short period of time, only 2.5 months. He was given no adequate training, and was provided with only the most rudimentary set of instructions to guide him. He engaged in a practice which was patently unsafe. Not only was the defendant aware that he engaged in that practice, but it took no steps to prevent Mr Stephenson from continuing in the practice. The area in which the work was being performed at the time of the accident was one to which customers had access, and where Mr Harvey, notwithstanding his experience, was so completely distracted by a customer that he forgot about Mr Stephenson who was at the crucial time on top of the concrete block trapped between the concrete block and the descending bucket. According to Mr Mathews he gave Mr Stephenson an instruction which was to ensure that the loader operator could always see him. Such an instruction was not helpful in circumstances where the loader operator, Mr Harvey, was not, in turn, looking out for Mr Stephenson's location having been momentarily distracted by the customer.
30 The engagement of a young and inexperienced worker in a business which operates potentially hazardous machinery and where a risk to safety exists, enhances the objective seriousness of the offence: Inspector Barbosa v Mc Donald's Australia Limited (2003) 125 IR 270, per Walton J, Vice-President at [113].
31 The risk to safety which arose as a direct result of the unsafe work practice (climbing onto the concrete block), and, of which the defendant was aware, was an obvious risk and a foreseeable risk. Moreover, it arose in circumstances where Mr Stephenson was forced to depart from the usual procedure of approaching the blocks from the side and adopt an unsafe procedure, because a particular block was obstructed by a pile of landscaping material.
32 Once Mr Stephenson climbed onto the concrete block he was entirely dependant for his safety on the loader operator, and entirely reliant on the loader operator to stop the descending bucket at the appropriate time. Failure by the loader operator to do so had the inevitable consequence that Mr Stephenson would be crushed.
33 The prevailing circumstances which gave rise to a foreseeable risk to safety include the following items of evidence, and inferences which may be drawn from the evidence:
(i) the defendant gave limited and ineffective instructions to Mr Stephenson about the procedure to be employed while loading and unloading concrete blocks;
(ii) Mr Stephenson was young and inexperienced and had little or no experience in working with large operating machinery;
(iii) Mr Stephenson was forced to employ the alternative and unsafe work procedure of climbing onto the concrete block when the concrete block became obstructed by landscaping material;
(iv) the defendant knew that Mr Stephenson on occasions employed this alternative procedure but took no steps to ensure the procedure was not used;
(v) the action of climbing onto the concrete block while the loader was in operation exposed Mr Stephenson to the very obvious risk of being crushed;
(vi) the area in which the loading and unloading was being done was also one to which customers had access and therefore the potential existed to distract or otherwise interfere with the operation in some way.
34 The existence of an obvious and foreseeable risk to safety renders the offence serious: Inspector Barry Childs v Kirk Group Holdings Pty Limited and Anor (2005) NSWIRComm 1, per Walton J, Vice-President at [39] citing, with approval Capral Aluminium Limited v WorkCover Authority (Inspector Mayo-Ramsay) (2000) 49 NSWLR 610 at [82].
35 The objective seriousness of this offence is compounded by the simple, inexpensive and obvious measures that could have been implemented by the defendant in order to obviate or eliminate the risk to safety. An instruction issued to Mr Stephenson by the defendant not to, under any circumstances, climb onto the concrete block during the loading and unloading operations could have avoided the risk. The procedure implemented by the defendant following the accident of ensuring that the task was performed by just one person was another simple, inexpensive way of eliminating any risk to safety which might otherwise arise.
36 Given the inherent dangers associated with the loading and unloading operation, which were heightened in my view by the lack of proper instructions to, and the youth and inexperience of, Mr Stephenson, there may well have been a need to formalise a set of directions or instructions for the operation. The need for some formal training becomes even more acute in the circumstances where Mr Stephenson, with the implied sanction of the defendant, adopted an alternative procedure which exposed him to a risk of serious injuries . Such a need for something more than "on the job" training was recognised by the Full Court in Genner Constructions Pty Limited v WorkCover Authority of New South Wales (Inspector Guillarte) (2001) 110 IR 57, at 73, where it was said:
"Whilst the lack of documented procedures will not always indicate a deficiency in the training provided by an employer it may, in some cases, constitute an indication the training was less comprehensive or systematic than was required. Where a worker may be required to autonomously adopt alternative work procedures in response to changing circumstances and those alterations may present serious risks to that worker or others, it would be prudent, at the very least, to ensure that "on-the-job" training was formalised and documented with a view to ensuring a comprehensive coverage of all facets of the work and full appreciation of any safety risks by the employee concerned."