A war of words is raging over whether workers have just received their best Christmas gift in over a decade or if businesses have had their stockings stuffed with coal.

Labor is heralding the passage of its major workplace reforms as a win for workers, saying it will put upwards pressure on wages after a decade of stagnation. 

The new laws passed the Senate on Thursday with the support of the Greens and independent David Pocock and are set to be rubber-stamped by the government-controlled lower house on Friday. 

Trade Minister Don Farrell wouldn’t put a date on when wage rises would kick in, but said some industries “are raring to go” once multi-employer bargaining is brought in. 

“It gives us the opportunity to really, really get wages moving again,” he said.

But Liberal senator Michaelia Cash said multi-employer bargaining would force undue costs on small businesses who didn’t want the new agreements and couldn’t afford them.

“It will only result in increased strike action and less jobs,” she said.

Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees will be excluded from single-interest multi-enterprise bargaining while those with fewer than 50 will have extra safeguards if they want to opt out of multi-employer bargaining.

The opposition failed to increase the exemption threshold to 200 employers.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie also lambasted Labor for stripping the construction industry of its watchdog. 

Labor abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which it said has become politicised and ineffective. 

Senator McKenzie said it was hypocritical of Labor to talk about improving workplace culture while dismantling an organisation that keeps a union like the CFMEU to account. 

“By abolishing the ABCC you’re going to allow that negative, sexist culture back into construction sites across the country,” she said. 

By Dominic Giannini in Canberra