CANBERRA, March 20 (Reuters) - Australia's parliament is battling on Friday over the shape of workplace and employment laws promised by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during his sweeping 2007 election victory.

Rudd faces a troublesome upper house Senate dominated by the major conservative opposition, five Australian Greens and two independent senators, all forming unpredictable vote coalitions.

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Here are five facts about the workplace laws and why they are so important to Rudd and his centre-left Labor government.

* Former conservative prime minister John Howard introduced contentious work and employment laws stripping back worker rights. Rudd promised to repeal the highly-unpopular laws, which angered many workers and unions, and were key to Howard's defeat.

* Rudd's new laws restore some union rights to enter a workplace and negotiate employment conditions on behalf of workers. Labor's historic roots lie in the workers' movement and unions, so the issue is at the heart of Rudd's agenda.

* Rudd's laws also restore workers rights to sue for unfair dismissal if they are sacked, although small businesses will have major exemptions from their effect. Businesses with fewer than 15 workers would get 12 months to decide whether to keep a worker, while larger companies would get six months.

* Much of the gridlock in the Senate is over the size of a small business. Rudd and Labor want the definition set at a firm with 15 workers or less. Most opponents want the bar set at 20 workers or their fulltime equivalent. The Australian Chamber of Commerce says there are around 1.9 million small businesses with 3.5 million workers.

* Rudd says the higher number would cut 500,000 workers from unfair dismissal protections. Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard puts that figure higher and says 700,000 workers would lose sacking protections.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

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