Dust settles on workplace laws fight

The fight over contentious changes to workplace laws that include multi-employer bargaining is coming to a head as the government rams them through before Christmas. 

The Senate sat late into Wednesday night to handle the legislation, which is destined to pass after the government secured the votes of the Greens and crossbencher David Pocock. 

Labor says the new bargaining powers will put upwards pressure on wages but the opposition is arguing smaller businesses will be forced into agreements and stung with legal costs they can't afford. 

Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees will be excluded from single-interest multi-enterprise bargaining.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will have extra safeguards if they want to opt out of multi-employer bargaining.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the current system is not fit for purpose. 

"It's not delivering the productivity gains employers need. It's not delivering the wage rises that workers deserve," he told the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"We're building a relevant and practical framework that enables employers and employees to negotiate in good faith, to agree on win-win outcomes."

The prime minister refused to bite on warnings from the Reserve Bank governor that Australia could be headed into a wage price spiral, when higher salaries fuel inflation.

"What the Reserve Bank has said is that low wage growth was something that was holding back our economy," he told the ABC's 7.30 program. 

"If you don't have wages keeping up with the cost of living, then you'll have increased pressure on working families."

Mr Albanese said enterprise bargaining would help boost productivity.

"The way you lift wages without putting pressure on inflation is to boost productivity," he said.

But Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said businesses would stop employing more people in order to remain exempt from multi-employer bargaining.

"Why on earth would you want to grow or say, 'I want to put in another 10 people'?" she said.

"This is a job destroyer."

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said workers should be able to negotiate on an equal platform with their employers.

"We are determined to make sure low-paid workers are able to access a bargaining stream that enables them to negotiate fairly," he said.

Mr Jones said the increased bargaining power would also help employees in lower paid industries fight for better conditions, which in turn would attract more workers.

"We had heard time and time again from employers in the childcare sector, aged care sector, and other caring sectors across the economy, that they cannot attract workers," he said.

"One of the reasons they cannot attract workers is because the wages are not able to compete with other comparable jobs across the economy."