Australian retailers have welcomed the Senate’s vote to delay its controversial workplace bill to allow time for further consultation.

On Monday, Workplace Minister Tony Burke introduced the Closing the Loopholes bill making it a criminal offence to deliberately underpay workers with a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of $5 million.

However today, the opposition led a successful motion to set the deadline for the Senate’s report into the 284-page Closing Loopholes Bill for February next year.

Australian Retailers Association (ARA) CEO, Paul Zahra, welcomed the decision and added the bill in its current form would “move workplace relations in the wrong direction” without any upside to productivity, job creation or workforce participation.

“We need to be extremely careful with any policy changes that could potentially drive price increases or result in added complexity for businesses – many of whom already struggle to comprehend the existing regulatory framework.”

Zahra said the decision comes as a “saving grace for retailers” who are already burdened with the execution of numerous workplace reforms.

“They are now better placed to focus on the all-important Christmas trading period as they navigate a consumer spending slowdown and a simultaneous squeeze on the cost-of-doing-business crisis,” said Zahra.

According to ARA, the bill  marks the third round of reforms in less than a year and is part of the “most intense rollout” of workplace relations reforms in decades.