Transport Workers Union ACT secretary Klaus Pinkas said the breakthrough was reached after a three hour negotiation with the assistance of the Fair Work commissioner.

“The new offer is clearly worth discussing with our members and we will meet at 6.30am tomorrow morning to decide whether we accept it,” he said.

“If it had been the same agreement repeated earlier in the week we would have continued with our strike action as planned.”

Mr Pinkas said the garbage collectors now have three options.

“Either we accept the new offer and go back to work, we go back to work and ask more questions from Sita, or we reject their latest offer and carry on with industrial action," he said.

Sita Australia corporate affairs manager Luke Schepen said he was pleased the progress made during discussions with the union and the Fair Work Commissioner.

"At the meeting we provided the TWU with a revised enterprise agreement which we feel provides a good outcome for employees and Sita," he said.

"We're hopeful that following the positive discussions this morning any industrial action and disruption to services can be avoided."

ACT NOWaste acting director David Roberts advised residents to place their bins at the kerb as per normal arrangements on Thursday and Friday and leave them there until collected.

"Hopefully this will take place over the weekend," he said.

Mr Pinkas said if the workers accept the offer or decide to again postpone strike action, then rubbish bins will be collected later than usual on Thursday.

Garbage collectors had planned to strike on Wednesday and Thursday of last week with more than 95 per cent of Transport Workers Union members supporting action after negotiations for a new collective agreement failed.

Workers say they are $100 to $150 worse off each week under their new arrangement, which took effect when Sita took over the garbage collection contract in October last year, although the union has admitted the changes are "complicated”.

Sita Australia has insisted that the Transport Worker's Union's claim that drivers are working the same hours for less money are false.

The suburbs that may be affected are: Acton, Ainslie, Aranda, Campbell, City, Barton, Braddon, Beard, Belconnen, Bruce, Deakin, Downer, Dunlop, Duntroon, Evatt, Franklin, Florey, Forrest, Giralang, Griffith, Hackett, Harrison, Harman, Hawker, Higgins, Hughes, Holt, Kaleen, Kingston, Latham, Lawson, Lyneham, Macgregor, Macquarie, McKellar, Narrabundah, North Lyneham, Oaks Estate, O’Connor, O’Malley, Page, Pialligo, Reid, Red Hill, Scullin, Turner, Watson, Weetangera, and Yarralumla.