The Australian Labor Party places great importance on industrial relations as shown by the lesser incidence of disputes under the Labor government, according to Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.

His comments were made amidst claims by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that the previous Liberal government of John Howard, in which he held the portfolio now headed by Shorten, did a better job.

Shorten, however, called attention on statistics, which, he claims, showed that spars between businesses and their employees during Howard's rule clearly outnumbered the cases seen since the ALP assumed government powers in 2007.

The ALP leadership, Shorten said, is a firm believer of balance benefits between businesses and workers, with emphasis on productivity that he stressed will redound to the good of everyone.

The federal government anchors its industrial relations on the Fair Work Act, which big businesses recently criticised as leaning to provisions that encourage disruptions with the flimsiest of reasons.

Such calls prompted Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call for a review of the Fair Work on December with a panel tasked by the government to lodge a report by May this year.

Such measure, Shorten said, proved that the ALP-led government listens to everybody and does not baby-sit certain quarters, as accused by key business figures in recent months.

"I don't accept through the proposition that somehow this system is more extreme than the one we replaced," the Minister stressed.

He assured too that productivity is right on top of the list at the ongoing review of the Fair Work Act contrary to claims by many in the business community.

"The Fair Work Act includes reference to promoting and achieving productivity, and as an object of the act this clearly brings the question of productivity within the scope of the review," Shorten was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.

However, Abbott insisted that the Fair Work itself was fraught with errors and suggested that the review ordered by Ms Gillard will hardly make a difference in minimising the incidence of workplace disputes in Australia.

Abbot rejected Shorten's claims that labour issues during the Howard government were much higher, reminding the Minister that "when I was the workplace relations minister, workplace disputes were at a historic low."

The situation right now, Abbott said, points to increasing cases of workplace problems and "it is important for government to address these problems."