Industrial action by local retained firefighters is to be suspended from midday following talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Donegal firefighters had undertaken the action along with their colleagues across the country in a dispute over pay and conditions.
SIPTU Divisional Organiser Karan O Loughlin said in a video message to members last night that progress at the talks had been slow and painful, but improvements had been made on pay.
Members of the retained service are part-time firefighters who are paid an annual retainer for being on-call.
For the last ten weeks, around 2,000 of the part-time personnel have been engaged in rolling industrial action, with pickets placed across 200 retained fire stations.
They recently rejected a Labour Court recommendation that their retainer be increased by between 24% and 32.7%.
Under those proposals, a firefighter on an annual retainer of €8,870 would see it rise to €11,769.
The fresh negotiations involving the union and management got under way at the WRC in Dublin yesterday morning.
Following the 12-hour long talks, Ms O Loughlin said strike action should be suspended and the union will move into the next phase of addressing issues during and after public service pay talks.
