As many as 31,000 Australians are missing work each day due to long COVID, which is putting pressure on an economy already troubled by labour shortages.
"Our labour market has been absolutely smashed by COVID and by long COVID," Treasurer Jim Chalmers says.
Dr Chalmers says the impact of illness on the workforce will be addressed at next week's federal skills and jobs summit.
"We want a healthy workforce, we want a productive workforce and we want a well-paid workforce - and all of these challenges are intertwined," he told reporters on Friday.
Industrial relations reforms have dominated the agenda ahead of the two-day employment gathering.
The ACTU has been pushing for changes to fair work laws to include multi-employer or sector bargaining, which would allow multiple workplaces to make an agreement together.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says he is open to the the collective bargaining approach and Greens leader Adam Bandt has also voiced his support.
However Opposition Leader Peter Dutton warns it will lead to crippling strikes, labelling it a throwback to the 1970s-era of industrial relations.
The Business Council of Australia, AI Group and others also oppose the union's multi-employer bargaining proposal, arguing adjustments to enterprise bargaining is the solution to sluggish wages growth.
Yet the peak body for small businesses, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, hasn't ruled out the notion of multiple workplaces bargaining in tandem.
"The industrial relations system has for too long been designed with big businesses in mind," COSBOA chief executive officer Alexi Boyd said.
"So what's important to us is simplifying it and making all tools of bargaining more accessible to small business owners who don't have teams of lawyers at their disposal to guide them through."
Gig worker rights have also surfaced in the lead up to the summit, with Mr Burke telling the Nine newspapers these types of labour contracts are a "cancer" on the economy.
Mr Burke addressed the Transport Workers Union on Friday to discuss reforms he hopes will see traditional employee rights extended to gig workers.
"Consultation on a new system to give rights to gig workers starts with those companies today," he said.
"I have made it clear that this is not an 'if' but a 'how'."
