An indefinite strike by staff at Tesco stores, which was due to begin tomorrow, has been deferred.
Both sides have agreed to return to talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
The row centres on planned changes to pay and rosters, which will affect around 300 long-serving staff who are on pre-1996 contracts.
Tesco employs around 14,000 workers across 140 stores.
Earlier, General Secretary of Mandate John Douglas said efforts by Tesco to change the contracts of about 300 of its longest-serving employees will have an adverse effect on their lives.
"It will mean between 15 and 20% reduction in their earnings for those workers. It'll mean that they have to make themselves available any time between 7 o'clock in the morning till 11 in the evening, five days over seven, so Monday to Sunday, to work.
"It'll mean that they'll lose any guaranteed overtime that they may have accumulated over the years. It'll mean that they have to be totally available at the beck-and-call of the company to come in any time they want them to."
Mr Douglas said that nearly 900 Tesco employees are on family-income supplement and if Tesco is allowed to lower the wages of another 300 workers, the responsibility will pass onto the State.
The head of Corporate Affairs at Tesco said the company needs to make what it calls a "relatively modest change" to the terms of the contracts of 300 people to create a more "equitable workplace."
Christine Heffernan said the pre-1996 contracts are not "flexible" and does not believe there is a basis for Mandate to take strike action.
She said the proposal put forward by the company would mean the vast majority of those employees would move to a different contract with a higher level of pay, they would continue to have a guaranteed shared bonus and they would back-date a 2% pay rise to April last year.
Ms Heffernan said if there are loss of earnings, Tesco would compensate them one-and-a-half times the annual loss and it will make a goodwill payment. She said the company feels strongly that the next stage in the process is that the union puts this proposal to its colleagues.
She said from the outset Tesco has been open to constructive discussions with the trade unions and the company has had a number of meetings at local level and four sessions in the WRC, including two in the last week.
The company has put forward a very fair and generous proposal that would help them improve customer service and improve equality within the workplace, she added.
