A planned strike on Cal Mac's ferries has been suspended after the Scottish Government agreed to delay the tendering process.
Seafarers' union, the RMT, called a temporary halt to Friday's proposed action.
A strike would have severely hit the majority of sea links to west coast islands, particularly the Western Isles.
Ships' ratings were due to refuse to work over fears about job losses, cuts to income
and pensions in the face of transferring state-
Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT said the suspension will allow detailed discussions with all parties regarding the "modest demands" made by RMT around no compulsory redundancies, staffing levels, protection of terms and conditions and pensions.
The union has set a deadline of 24 July for the conclusion of discussions.
The publication of the draft invitation to both Cal Mac and its private sector rival, Serco, to tender for a £1 billion subsidy to run the ferry route network has been postponed by three weeks until the end of the month.
A strike last week caused chaos with tourists and islanders stranded and local businesses losing money.
The subsequent backlog of ferry traffic created more travel problems on the Saturday.
Cal Mac has already changed a number of ferry sailings for Thursday in advance of the proposed strike. It also moved over 650 bookings for Friday onto other days.
Friday's Cal Mac ferry strike called off
8 July 2015