Griffin Coal has refused to accept a Fair Work Commission recommendation that could have ended a nearly two-year long industrial dispute.
Fair Work Commission Deputy President Geoffrey Bull handed down the recommendation on December 4 in an attempt to resolve the long-standing pay dispute between the company and its maintenance workers.
Workers at the Collie coal mine have been on strike for the nearly four months.
The protracted industrial action is the longest in the history of coal mining in WA, eclipsing the previous record of 13 weeks.
It began two weeks after production staff at Indian-owned company accepted a 35 per cent pay cut.
Maintenance workers were faced with a similar agreement that reduced their wages by about 40 per cent.
Mr Bull recommended that the rates proposed by Griffin Coal remain, except for when employees are placed on a 12-hour roster for more than 21 days.
When this occurs "any maintenance employees working a 12 hour roster at the time shall revert to a rate no less than the 12 hour production rate plus 4 per cent for as long as the production workforce remain on a 12 hour arrangement".
Despite the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union and its members accepting the recommendation, Griffin Coal has refused.
Mr Bull held another round of meetings and negotiations on Thursday, in attempt to break the industrial deadlock.
AMWU Branch Secretary Steve McCartney has slammed the company for its decision.
"This recommendation is a common sense, middle ground outcome for both parties, and it's incredibly frustrating that Griffin Coal has not picked it up," Mr McCartney said.
"Instead they are picking apart the recommendation and trying to substitute the Commission's practical solution with more pain and pressure for their workers."
Mr McCartney said Griffin Coal were all too happy to involve the Commission in order to terminate its employee's enterprise bargaining application.
"But now that the Commission isn't giving them what they want, they're spitting the dummy.
"We can only hope that Griffin Coal sees sense and accepts Deputy President Bull's recommendation and finally ends this long-running dispute so that our members can go back to work," he said.
The coal mining giant fell on hard times earlier this year when its parent company Lanco Infratech Limited, announced it was going into receivership in a statement released on the Indian stock exchange in May.
Griffin Coal was unable to be reached for comment.
