Yesterday Labor’s Mick Veitch, opposition spokesman for trade and investment, and Adam Searle, opposition spokesman for industrial relations, visited Orange to push the case for the government to adopt amendments to the bill, saying the delays were unacceptable.

The proposed amendments would extend the dates of eligibility of the payroll tax for employers, benefiting Electrolux workers facing job losses when the plant closes at the end of 2015.

“We are not opposing this bill - we are prepared to support it - but there is just a small window of opportunity with only six sitting days left for parliamentary business and to get this through before the end of the year ,” Mr Searle said.

In March this year, Member for Orange Andrew Gee intimated the changes could be drafted with ‘just a stroke of the pen’.

“But time is not on our side and that ‘stroke of a pen’ has not happened,” Mr Veitch said.

“With the latest job cuts announced this week at the coal mine in Lithgow it brings to 10,000 the job cuts in this region in the last 12 months.

“We need those amendments to go through to extend the dates for eligibility for employer benefits so the Electrolux workers don’t miss out,” Mr Searle said.

Earlier this year the state government announced an increase in payroll tax rebates from $5,000 to $6,000 for employers taking on redundant workers, however the cut-off dates excluded Orange’s Electrolux workers.

In May Mr Gee said he had engaged in vigorous and frank discussions with his parliamentary colleagues over the cut-off dates.

“We are calling on the government now to put this bill forward,” Mr Veitch said.

The bill was last discussed in the upper house on May 13.

During yesterday’s visit, Mr Veitch and Mr Searle met with Central West Community Alliance representatives to discuss progress on the jobs plan for the central west to assist workers facing redundancy.