Newly re-elected Hunter Workers secretary Leigh Shears has backed the union movement's call for industry-wide collective bargaining on the eve of the National Jobs and Skills Summit.
The federal government will hold the summit at Parliament House on Thursday and Friday before preparing an employment white paper.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions argues that sector-wide agreements and negotiations are the only way to increase real wages and that the collective bargaining system no longer serves the interests of employees in small businesses or on low pay.
Employer groups and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have attacked the proposal as a return to 1970s-style industrial relations.
Mr Shears said the summit was a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to "modernise" workplace laws to match changes in employment.
"Today we have just 14 per cent of the workforce covered by collective agreements while real wages are declining and insecure work is at crisis point," he said.
"This is not just because of the pandemic; this has been happening over the last decade, leading to the decline in living standards for many workers."
He said low wages were a "deliberate design feature" of the previous Morrison government's economic plan.
The government says the summit will develop strategies to keep unemployment low while boosting productivity and incomes.
It will also focus on increasing job security, addressing skills shortages, improving migration settings, maximising employment from renewable energy and ensuring women have equal pay and opportunity.
Mr Shears said workers needed a simpler bargaining system to improve wages and conditions.
"Our enterprise bargaining system was introduced over 30 years ago when work and our workplaces were different.
"Workers should be able to join together to bargain across an industry."
Hunter Workers, the region's trades labour council representing 6400 members, re-elected Mr Shears as secretary for the next four years at its annual general meeting last week.
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