No workers have been covered by the agreement since it expired in September 2015 and the mine has been in care and maintenance since then.

Wollongong Coal has asked the Fair Work Commission on two occasions to terminate the agreement - which can be done once it has passed its expiry date - but lost both times.

The miner has lodged another appeal against the decision, calling on the commission to quash the second refusal - which was handed down in April this year.

In lodging permission to appeal, the miner claimed Commissioner Bernie Riordan had either misunderstood or misapplied the relevant legislation, and did not have sufficient regard to certain matters when making the decision.

While two other objections were dismissed the commission accepted these points and quashed Commissioner Riordan's ruling and opted to rehear the application to scrap the agreement.

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