The Ministry of Justice has made an offer that could signal the end to a long-running pay dispute with court staff.
For the past five months more than 1700 court workers across the country have been taking industrial action, causing disruption to trials and delays in fines being collected.
Ministry general manager of district courts, Tony Fisher, says it and the Public Service Association (PSA) resumed talks last week and came to a settlement on Friday.
Mr Fisher says both sides agreed on common ground and made compromises.
He says the Ministry is comfortable with the offer, but it will be up to PSA members to decide whether it should be accepted.
The PSA says the offer is a sign of significant progress.
National secretary Richard Wagstaff says it worked hard to improve on an earlier offer from the Ministry, and this one is better.
But Mr Wagstaff says it will be up to members to decide if that is the case.
All industrial action is suspended while PSA members discuss the offer.
