A spokesman for Southern said: “We are encouraged that the RMT has accepted our offer to resume talks at ACAS and has agreed to call off its strike action”.
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It comes after the RMT said Eurostar rail workers will go on strike over two weekends in August in a dispute over work and life balance.
Southern rail admitted that services will continue to be hit until the weekend as it struggles to open routes closed during the previous three days of strikes caused by a walkout of 400 train guards. The confrontation between the two sides has been over Govia Thameslink, who own Southern, and their plans to introduce driver-only trains.
It is the biggest strike of its kind since 1968.
He said:”The company knows that prescriptive pre-conditions would not allow genuine talks to take place”.
There had been widespread reports that commuters who were consistently late to work even being forced to move house or job.
RMT’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said its train manager members are “sick and tired” of Eurostar’s “failure” to honour a work/life balance agreement made in 2008.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling was said to be “very disappointed” that unions kept calling strike action over “what appear to be pretty minor matters”, adding that the decision felt like “an excuse to be militant”.
On Friday 12 August they say they aree doing everything they can to operate a service as close as possible to the pre-strike timetable (the revised timetable in operation last week) however as they restore trains and train crew to their normal pattern of working, there may be short notice delays, cancellations and alterations.
The development came after the chief executive of Southern trains stepped up his attacks on the RMT union, accusing it of repeatedly misleading the staff it represents.
Following an offer from the RMT to suspend the action if Southern returned to talks without any preconditions, Acas announced that new talks will be held on Thursday.
A spokesman said: “On the days of the strike we have made some small changes to our timetable to ensure that all passengers booked to travel will be able to on those days”.
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RMT members are due to march on Whitehall on Wednesday to stage a protest outside the Department for Transport (DfT) amid claims the Government has put a “blockade” on talks to end the dispute.
