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Australia's biggest business and employer groups cancelled a high-powered phone hook-up planned for Tuesday night to discuss how to counter a Labor-union political campaign opposing cuts to Sunday penalty rates.
While they are divided on how to challenge the campaign, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has written to every member of the crossbench to pressure them to support Labor's bill to stop a cut to Sunday penalty rates.
Shorten can't escape his own words
They are the quotes Bill Shorten can't run away from - from company tax cuts to the Fair Work Commission, the Opposition Leader is haunted by positions he's had in the past.
In Parliament on Tuesday, Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Shorten traded blows again over the issue, with the Prime Minister pointing out the review had begun under Labor.
He also accused the Opposition Leader of hypocrisy for previously defending the independence of the Fair Work Commission, but now proposing legislation that would override the Commission's decision.
The Business Council of Australia had called for the phone hook-up and invited the chief executives of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Industry Group, Restaurant and Catering Australia, the Council of Small Business and the Australian Mines and Metals Association among others.
It was intended to help the organisations co-ordinate a fightback against a potential Workchoices-style campaign by Labor and the unions against the penalty-rate decision.
Employer groups have welcomed the Commission's ruling, which would see penalty rates for an estimated 700,000 retail, hospitality and fast-food workers reduced, arguing it will allow more businesses to open and for them to offer more shifts to workers.
But the BCA's decision to attempt to hold the phone hook-up caused disquiet among some of the other business groups, who believe the BCA's members - Australia's largest 100 companies - have limited exposure to the penalty rates ruling as their members' typically use enterprise bargaining agreements.
One person invited to participate in the meeting told Fairfax Media that "we already have a vehicle in place, the ACCI, that coordinates all of these issues and they should continue to do so".