More than 4,000 central Queensland mine workers will walk off the job in the next few days as part of ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations.

Staff at seven BHP mines will take part in the protected action, with rolling stoppages at Goonyella and Peak Downs mines already underway.

Mr Steve Pierce from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said that job security is a major sticking point. He said that more talks are scheduled for next week but further action will be taken if they cannot reach an agreement.

Mr Pierce said that "They are committed to pursuing that form of action if it's necessary. They would rather have a position where we reach a settlement on the agreement through negotiation but as I said they believe that their claims are reasonable and they have a rightful and legal right to put them forward and have them dealt with."

Mr Pierce said that there has been some progress made in recent talks. He added that "There's been some movement from BHP but no movement, or very little movement, on the critical issues. They're basically saying, 'this is our position and you take it or leave and we'll tinker around the edges but we're not going to move substantially on any of the issues like job security."

BHP has previously said it will continue negotiations in good faith.

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)