Federal Labor says it’s in for a tough fight to ensure millions of Australian workers keep weekend and public holiday penalty rates as business launches a push for industrial relations reform across the country.

“WorkChoices is not dead,” Labor senator, Doug Cameron, said on Saturday, following Fairfax Media reports that industry groups were campaigning to wind back and cut weekend and public holiday penalty rates, particularly in the hospitality sector.

“The Abbott government … is behind this push by business to try to cut the penalty rates of ordinary Australian workers,” Senator Cameron added.

He said around 4.5 million workers across the country depended on penalty rates to “actually put food on the table, take the family out to get a meal and go for a holiday once a year”.

“Penalty rates are extremely important,” he said.

The reported campaign by industry comes as the Fair Work Commission reviews more than 200 awards that provide minimum wage, hours and other conditions.

The commission is also said to be separately examining penalty rates that will impact a number of awards.

Senator Cameron said Labor was in for a tough fight to protect current penalty rates.

“The backbench of the Liberal party, cabinet ministers in the Liberal party, big business, they are all lining up to take advantage of the downturn in the economy and attack penalty rates,” he said.

“This is a campaign that’s going to be a tough campaign, but it’s a campaign that is right.”

Senator Cameron was especially critical of moves by Australia’s biggest brickmaker, ASX listed, Brickworks, to cut penalty rates.

“This is a multi-billion dollar business; it’s simply about cost cutting,” he said.

“This is a business that puts hundreds of thousands of dollars into Liberal party funds, and now they want to take those funds out of the pockets of their workers.”

AAP