After peace talks at the Fair Work Commission, the department has agreed to grant the 38 young people a six-week reprieve from their sacking, leaving them an outside chance of finding jobs in other public service departments.

But the pursuit of compensation over the sackings is still a ''live issue'', according to the Community and Public Sector Union.

The compromise, brokered at the commission after the union launched action, will allow other departments to hire the graduates because as Australian Public Service employees they are not covered by the government-imposed hiring freeze.

The majority of departments have already completed their 2014 graduate intakes and plan to cull their workforces through redundancies so opportunities could be limited.

The applicants for the AusAID program had been offered graduate positions with the overseas aid agency, but were then told by DFAT that there were no jobs for them.

DFAT, which will go ahead with its own graduate program as usual next year, endured a storm of criticism for its move, which contravened two pieces of specific advice from the Public Service Commission.

CPSU deputy secretary Rupert Evans said on Wednesday the compromise represented an offer DFAT should have made at the start.

''We think that's what should have happened in the first place, so we're pleased that the department has agreed to that. It's an opportunity that didn't exist for these people before,'' he said. ''It's a good outcome and we hope that as many of them get taken up as possible.

''The AusAID graduate positions historically, and this time around, have been very keenly contested.

''The graduate intake in the APS is among the best and brightest anyway and the AusAID one is particularly keenly sought. So these people really are the cream of our community that is seeking to work in the public service.

''So we hope if there are any vacancies, they get snapped up.''

DFAT has given each graduate a glowing letter of recommendation to use in their quest for work at other agencies. They are now free to join the service's ''redeployment register'' set up to help discarded public servants find jobs in new departments.

But Mr Evans warned that some of the graduates, many of whom refused other job offers to go to work at AusAID, could still pursue options to recover money spent trying to get AusAID jobs.

''Some of these people have incurred expenses, in good faith, in their efforts to take up the opportunity and that is a live issue still,'' he said.

''Some of this could have been avoided and we're disappointed that it took as long as it did to get to where we did.''