New laws will give workers more power to request flexible working hours while introducing controversial changes to pave the way for widespread multi-employer bargaining.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke introduced the bill to parliament on Thursday as part of the first round of reforms to workers' rights.
Under the changes, employers will be legally required to reach an agreement with employees who request flexible work hours.
Workers would be able to take the case to the workforce watchdog if their boss refuses.
The bill would also aim to close the 14 per cent gender pay gap and ban secrecy clauses on pay.
Multi-employer bargaining would also be introduced, with the Fair Work Commission also given new powers to resolve long-running disputes.
Mr Burke said the laws would help to boost wages for workers at a time of flatlining pay cheques.
Changes will also see new limits placed on rolling term contracts so employees can't be put on long probation periods.
The workplace bill will clear the way for multi-employer bargaining, a measure facing stiff resistance from business groups over concerns it could lead to more strikes and risk jobs.
Mr Burke said the laws would remove unnecessary limitations from the bargaining system.
"We're not creating new streams of bargaining, we are varying the existing streams to make them work and to get wages moving," he said.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Andrew McKellar raised his concerns about the bill and how quickly it was being rushed through.
"The government has today introduced its so-called 'secure jobs, better pay' bill - the reality is, this bill could be called 'more strikes and job losses', because that's a risk that we will see if this bill is passed in its current form," Mr McKellar told reporters in Canberra.
He said the reforms would see the Fair Work Commission put at the centre of decisions usually resolved between employers and employees.
Mr McKellar also said the three-week time frame to review the bill was too short and that the business community needed more time to work through possible amendments with the government.
"If this is going to pass in any form, we need to have that process - we're seeing an insane rush to jam this legislation through," he said.
Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said the bargaining system wasn't broken and the proposed legislation would remove much-needed flexibility from such arrangements.
"This pattern style, industry-wide bargaining will increase strike action," Ms Ley told reporters.
"What this is, is this government taking the industrial relations system back to the 1970s and not having at its centre productivity in the workplace or a focus on increasing jobs, and security for both employees and employers," she said.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the laws would help to get wages moving.
"The wages crisis will not be fixed unless workers have a modern collective bargaining system that gives them the ability to win fair pay rises," she said.
"People are working hard, but they are now seeing their wages go dramatically backwards after a decade of seeing them go nowhere."
However, the union secretary expressed concern that too many employees would be shut out of the new bargaining system.
"The bill does not simplify or remove the red tape that makes the process of obtaining protected industrial action for workers unnecessarily long and difficult, in fact it adds more red tape."
