“We welcome the Fair Work Amendment Bills introduced into Parliament today,” Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“The Fair Work Amendment (Repeal of 4 Yearly Reviews and Other Measures) Bill 2017 makes common sense changes, including repealing the unwieldy four-yearly reviews of modern awards and relaxing the treatment of minor technical errors made during enterprise bargaining.

“We commend the government for beginning to implement the recommendations made by the Productivity Commission in its Final Report into the Workplace Relations Framework.

“We are also broadly supportive of efforts to tackle exploitation of workers through the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017. This sort of behaviour cannot and should not be tolerated in the modern workplace.

“It will, however, be important that new penalties and powers are applied carefully to avoid unintentionally penalising those employers who are trying to do the right thing.”