The five-month impasse is now shaping as the company’s most significant industrial issue at its coal mining operations since it ended the long and bitter enterprise agreement dispute with unions at its Queensland coal mines.

About 32 Dendrobium and 50 Appin supervisors will take protected industrial action from today.

The action consists of ongoing bans on working non-rostered overtime as well as any communication or consultation that starts before the 30-minute pre-shift consultation and occurs after the 15 minute post-shift consultation.

Mining supervisors will not work shifts on Friday and Monday. There will also be a one-hour stopwork meeting on Tuesday.

The major stumbling blocks in the dispute have been the request by mining supervisors for BHP to improve their base pay rate to be in line with NSW standards. They also want guaranteed annual increases rather than discretionary increases, said Margaret Buchanan of the collieries staff division of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (APESMA).

“No one takes industrial action lightly. But after five months of negotiations, mining supervisors have no other way to get BHP to take their concerns seriously,” she said.

Buchanan refuted BHP’s claim that Dendrobium supervisors were remunerated in the top 25% in the coal industry, saying: “Dendrobium mining supervisors are currently on one of the lowest base pay rates in NSW and their request to have their base pay rate brought up to NSW standards has fallen on deaf ears.

“There’s no question that BHP – given its massive size and profitability – can afford to pay these Illawarra workers their true value.

“Dendrobium supervisors are extremely disappointed that BHP is refusing to take this issue seriously.”

President of Illawarra Coal Troy McDonald said in a statement said the strike would not change the company's position on "unreasonable union

claims."

"At a time when the coal industry and other sectors are under considerable pressure, industrial action by mining supervisors who represent only 6% of the Illawarra Coal workforce will only cause uncertainty to the mine, other employees and the broader Illawarra community," he said.

Fifty mine supervisors at Appin went on strike for two weeks in December over the enterprise agreement negotiations, which the union claimed would bring their salaries in line with the industry average.

But BHP Billiton said the APESMA union only used the base salary as its comparison with industry salaries rather than the total remuneration package.

McDonald said it was important to consider the whole of Illawarra Coal and its broader operations when negotiating the agreement.

The company is now assessing its options to ensure safe and efficient operations during industrial action at both mines, he said.