Management and unions at Dublin Bus will today attend a special session of the Labour Court aimed at resolving the dispute which has left 60,000 passengers without services for the last five days.
Pickets will remain at the Harristown garage in north Dublin for a sixth day despite the new talks.
The suspension of the strike or the deferral of plans by the company to introduce revised rosters for drivers assigned to two new cross-city routes were not preconditions to the Labour Court intervention.
The parties were invited to the special session today by the chairman of Labour Court, Kevin Duffy, who held exploratory talks with unions and management earlier in the week.
Mr Duffy had warned that if the strike had escalated to other Dublin Bus garages, the court would have no further role in resolving the dispute.
The current row centres around the rosters for drivers operating the new routes, the 4A and the 128, which the company wants to introduce.
The company wants some of the drivers to start and finish their shifts and take their breaks in the city centre rather than at the Harristown garage near Dublin airport.
The drivers argue that under an agreement reached to facilitate the opening of the Harristown garage in 2004, all starts, finishes and breaks were to take place there.
The company denies that any such terms were agreed.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the National Bus and Rail Union, one of the unions representing drivers at Harristown, has criticised some members who protested outside its offices in Dublin city centre on Wednesday.
A number of drivers from the Harristown garage had sought entry to the union's headquarters on Wednesday following a march in Dublin.
Some drivers had criticised the union leadership in broadcast interviews after the march.
In a notice to members, the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union Michael Faherty said: "On behalf of officers and negotiation personnel, I would like to know what justification the mob had with their disgraceful behaviour in venting vitriol" outside the union's offices.
He said a small minority were attempting to subvert the efforts of the union to secure a settlement in pursuit of their own political ambitions.
