Relations between business and the government are at risk of serious fracture amid confirmation the planned expansion of industry-wide bargaining will enable the return of sector-wide strikes across the whole economy, and increase the scope for the forced arbitration of disputes.

The nation’s three peak business and employer organisations joined forces on Friday to issue a statement pleading with the government to rethink plans to rush through its omnibus industrial relations legislation before Christmas, warning the nation could ill-afford “increased industrial action, supply chain bottlenecks, and unsustainable wage pressures”.