The Communications Workers' Union has called off its industrial action which has disrupted postal services throughout the country.
After meeting for almost two hours the union's dispute committee decided to urge workers to return to work from 6pm this evening.
General Secretary Steve Fitzpatrick also said that the union would guarantee not to take any further industrial action until the National Implementation Body process aimed at resolving the dispute at An Post had concluded.
The union implemented a ban on overtime, and placed pickets on the GPO in Dublin, from midnight last night.
The NIB proposed that action be deferred while an independent assessment is carried out on the implications and costs of a number of amendments to the Labour Court recommendations of last July.
Both sides agreed to the proposal, but the CWU said it was unable to call off the strike last night.
A spokesperson for An Post said that customers could restart posting mail.
However, she cautioned that there would be delays in the return to normal service.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Welfare has confirmed that all social welfare payments which were due to be posted today have actually been collected by An Post and sent out in the mail as usual.
The spokesperson said they were watching the dispute carefully but expected the vast majority of social welfare recipients to receive their cheques in the post tomorrow morning as usual.
