An agreement appears to have been reached in a dispute between child protection workers in Tasmania's north and the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Industrial action was planned in the push to reduce workers’ caseloads.

The strikes are expected to be called off after the Health and Community Services Union, which represents child protection workers, and the department fronted the industrial commission this week.

Union members had voted for industrial action that would have limited the number of cases to 15 each.

The parties reached an agreement that if any workers had to take on more than 15 children, management would launch a review.

The new deal will now go to a union members’ vote, and if it passes then industrial action will be lifted on Monday.

The new process will run until both parties reappear before the commission in late October.

HACSU assistant secretary Robbie Moore told the ABC it was a big step towards the goal of caseload caps.

“The government representatives had refused to contemplate maximum case numbers and they're now agreeing to engage in setting maximum case numbers,” he said.

“For case managers it would be a cap of working with 15 children and at that stage if there was any proposal for any child protection worker to go above that they would have to go through a process and the employee is entitled to say they cannot take on any more children,” Mr Moore said.

Acting department secretary Michael Pervan has claimed victory too, saying the agreed process does not represent a cap, and he remains opposed to maximum caseload limits.

“As the union has acknowledged, case loads have been a long standing issue for many years which we want to work with members to address,” he said.

“We appreciate and welcome the union's participation and we will continue to work constructively through the [Tasmanian Industrial Commission] TIC to progress this matter.”

Workers who currently have over 15 cases must continue to juggle them all, but will not be made to take on any more.

There is still disagreement between the union and Government on the exact level of the northern office's workload.

The union says case management workers deal with an average of 18 children each, while the Government says the figure is closer to 12.