Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has been accused of riding roughshod over a deal with the Senate crossbench by unilaterally ruling out any changes that would make more smaller businesses eligible for exemptions to unfair dismissal laws.

Employers and the Coalition argued Senator Watt had “made a mockery” of the Albanese government’s deal with independent senator David Pocock to examine the definition of a small business in return for his vote for Labor industrial relations laws earlier this year, including the right to disconnect.