The Public Service Association is hopeful there may still be life left in deadlocked pay talks between it and the Justice Ministry.
For the past two months, court workers around the country have been taking unannounced strike action over a pay dispute.
The ministry's latest pay offer - which included a pay rise in 2010 and a one-off bonus for some staff who reach certain performance targets - expired at noon on Friday, and the ministry says all its options are exhausted.
But PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff says the decision to end the bargaining is a short-term approach that will not work.
He is accusing the ministry of pushing the panic button, by trying to call off bargaining and making offers to individual staff.
Getting the views of non-unionised staff
The Ministry of Justice says it has nothing further to discuss with the union, unless new proposals to revive the talks are brought forward.
Meanwhile, it has been surveying its non-unionised staff - roughly half of the total staff - for their views on the offer turned down by the PSA.
The general manager for higher courts, Andrew Hampton, says that while it's too early to draw definitive conclusions from the survey, the initial comments that have been returned are very positive about the ministry's proposed pay structure.