WA coal workers walk off the job over pay

Maintenance workers at a coal mine south of Perth have walked off the job over a 43 per cent pay cut.

Seventy workers at Griffin Coal mine at Collie went on strike for 24 hours from Friday morning after the Fair Work Commission approved an application by Griffin to terminate their current Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA).

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state secretary Steve McCartney said negotiations with Griffin Coal had been going on for almost 18 months and workers were facing significant pain as coal prices remained low.

"After months of protracted negotiations, workers were being asked to accept unprecedented wage cuts, reductions to redundancies, entitlements, allowances and the abolition of protective clauses that had been hard won by previous generations of Collie miners," Mr McCartney said.

He said workers had taken protected industrial action and recognised the recognised difficulties in the coal mining sector.