Business Council of Australia (BCA) chief Bran Black claims the government's bill - aimed at closing loopholes used by employers to exploit workers and undermine pay and working conditions - will hurt businesses.
"The legislation will create significant costs for businesses and result in less jobs and less opportunities," he said.
Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black says the government's bill will hurt businesses. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
A senate report on the bill, released on Thursday, included dissenting opinions from coalition and independent senators.
Independent David Pocock, for example, has recommended implementing a right for casual employees to refuse permanent contract conversions on fair and responsible grounds and improving cycleways for food delivery drivers.
Senator Jacqui Lambie has suggested providing more resources to regulators to investigate instances of suspected underpayments and considering the capacity of businesses to pay fines for wage exploitation.
The BCA has encouraged the government to adopt some of these changes to "minimise the worst parts of the bill".
But after hearing from workers, businesses and unions the Senate report recommended the bill's passage with an amendment to give employees the right to disconnect outside working hours.
"The message was that the current system isn't working," Greens senator Tony Sheldon and Labor senators Karen Grogan and Fatima Payman wrote in the final report.
"It doesn't protect workers' pay and conditions.Â
"It doesn't protect good businesses who are being undercut by bad businesses.
"The committee recommends that the bill be passed."
Independent senator David Pocock has recommended improving cycleways for food delivery drivers. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
The committee considered the outcry from big business groups but described the criticism as "misleading, self-serving and evidence-free".
The report noted the growing cohort of casual employees who are, in practice, full-time or part-time workers with fewer benefits.
It also acknowledged the working standards in the gig economy that have led to the deaths of at least 15 food delivery and rideshare employees since 2017.
The more agreeable elements of the reforms - which included criminalising industrial manslaughter, providing better support for workers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and improving protections for those subject to family and domestic violence - passed in December after Labor split the bill.
However, coalition senators remain opposed to the rest of the reforms.
"It is bad for jobs; it is bad for workers, and it is bad for employers," Matt O'Sullivan, Slade Brockman and Michaelia Cash wrote in their dissenting report.
"This bill was fatally flawed from its conception."
Senator Lambie also shared concerns about the reforms' impacts on small businesses.
"Some change to the employment landscape is necessary, but further scrutiny and investigation ... is key to getting this right."
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