The strike, which began on July 14 after talks broke down over a new enterprise agreement, involves 85 union workers. The stand-off has crippled the New South Wales operation with only a few days of longwall production occurring in the past month.

Elouera produced 1.69 million tonnes of coal from the Wongawilli seam last year.

At the core of the dispute are negotiations over terms of the certified agreement which decides union workers’ base rate of pay and hours. Traditionally, BHP Billiton operations have received similar base rates, but negotiations at the nearby Appin colliery six months ago put its workers on approximately A$5 per hour more than its Elouera counterparts.

When negotiations ensued at Elouera, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) representatives negotiated for the same rate as Appin (a 4% increase). BHP Billiton declined to meet the demand.

CFMEU south-west district secretary Bob Mitchell said BHP Billiton refused to close the discrepancy in pay between Appin and Elouera because of Elouera’s limited mine life.

“One of the big issues at Elouera is it has a life of about two more years which means BHP Billiton will have a lot of on-costs at the time of mine closure. Some of the blokes have been there for 30 years and the later ones been there about 17 years, which means on-costs are going to be high. BHP thinks that it is too much to pay out with the pay rise,” said Mitchell.

Upon mine closure, redundancy packages will include three weeks pay for every year worked.

“This is for a lot of people their final pay packet – some of these blokes are to the age where they’re not going to get another start as they edge closer to age of retirement,” he said.

BHP Billiton and CFMEU workers are also wrangling over work rosters. Mitchell said the company wished to negotiate 12 hour shifts and the right for the operation to regulate the shifts. Union workers argued 12 hours at the face doing the same task was too long. Currently the mine operates on nine hour shifts.

BHP Billiton representatives have been in talks with the union since the beginning of the strike action.

A spokesman for BHP Billiton said it had encouraged Elouera mine employees to return to work and to continue certified agreement negotiations.

The company said the decision to continue strike action was disappointing.

Mitchell said the union was happy to meet with the company at any time.