A push by restaurant owners to slash weekend pay for staff would ultimately lead to a wages cut for more than half a million low-paid workers, the union representing employees in the industry says.
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Restaurant and Catering, which represents owners and managers in the industry, will appear before the industrial relations commission in Sydney on Tuesday.
Chief executive John Hart will present the industry's case to cut the extra payments for hospitality employees who work weekends and nights.
Instead, only those who work more than five days in a row would get the penalty rates they are now entitled to.
The restaurant industry is already notoriously lax on workplace laws, with many restaurants flagrantly ignoring required pay levels and work conditions.
The push by restaurants comes days after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, releasing the Coalition's industrial relations policy, promised to preserve penalty rates if he wins government in September.
Mr Abbott said his government would not reduce penalty rates but acknowledged that they were a ''significant issue'', particularly for hospitality businesses.
He said penalty rates would continue to be decided by the Fair Work Commission.
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has warned that Mr Abbott could not be trusted to protect penalty rates if he won government.
Restaurant and Catering's Mr Hart said the group's proposed changes, to be decided on by the commission later this year, would immediately see many restaurants opening on Sundays.
A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Restaurant and Catering, has found that restricting penalty payments to only those who worked more than five consecutive days - instead of everyone who worked on the weekend - would cut the wages bill for restaurants by 14 per cent.
This would immediately create 3800 new jobs, it found.
The United Voice union argues the proposal would see some of the lowest paid workers in the county taking a pay cut - to boost the profitability of restaurants.
National secretary Louise Tarrant said if penalty payments in the restaurant sector went, related industries in hospitality would soon follow, eventually affecting up to 550,000 employees.
''Once the principle is lost, it will be lost for everybody,'' she said.
Restaurateur Matteo Pignatelli, who runs North Fitzroy's Matteo's, is president of Restaurant and Catering's Victorian branch. He said making penalties apply only to those who worked more than five consecutive days would see many venues that closed on Sundays throw open their doors again.
''A lot of restaurants are closing on Sundays now, and that's when their busy days are,'' he said.
