Bill Shorten is willing to work with the prime minister to reverse the looming cuts to weekend penalty rates, otherwise he'll restore them if Labor wins the next election.
Some 700,000 workers will lose their penalty rates from Sunday at the same time as top wage earners are getting a tax cut with the end of the deficit levy from Saturday, the opposition leader says.
"I just ask Malcolm Turnbull to put the people first and not the top end of town," Mr Shorten told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
The Labor leader says people earning penalty rates by and large spend every dollar they get paid.
"So when you cut penalty rates, you cut the amount of money in the economy, people have less to spend, and that actually damages business confidence and doesn't help small businesses in the long run."
However, prominent economist Chris Richardson says when looking at the economy overall, the impact of the penalty rate cut is "pretty tiny" - less than 0.1 per cent of all wages earned in Australia.
"(But) for the individuals and the businesses they work for, the Sunday economy, it's big news," the Deloitte Access Economics economist told Sky News.
Workers in retail and some hospitality industries will have their weekend penalty rates cut from this weekend under a decision of the independent Fair Work Commission.
Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor says the party will continue to fight when parliament resumes in August for the decision to be reversed.
Labor will also take a policy to protect the take-home pay of workers to the next election.
But Mr O'Connor concedes back-pay for the reductions already in place by then would be impossible and too disruptive.
"This won't be retrospective in relation to payment but it will restore the rates as they were on the 30th of June, 2017," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
The Council of Small Business Australia described Labor's pledge as a vote of no-confidence in the Fair Work Commission.
"The Fair Work Commission's made one decision which they don't like and they're going to undo it," CEO Peter Strong said.
"I think this is disgraceful."
