The media union has come away from a “positive, constructive” session with the head of ABC as the threat of future strikes hangs over the national broadcaster.

Employees and representatives of the media union met face-to-face with ABC managing director Hugh Marks on Monday after swathes of staff took part in the national broadcaster’s first major strike in two decades.

Negotiations reached a stalemate when workers knocked back a 10-per-cent pay rise over three years, pushing for 13.5 per cent, and protested what they say is the ABC’s overreliance on short-term contracts.

Monday’s meeting, mediated by the Fair Work Commission, was the first major discussion since the strike action.

“The commissioner facilitated really constructive discussions and we’re continuing to work through it,” Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance director Cassie Derrick said.

“It’s been really positive today.

“The next step is to go back to our membership.”

Earlier, Marks said “we’ll see how this goes” as he walked into the talks. That followed earlier comments in which he recognised staff had some “pretty poor experiences” at the broadcaster.

“We have a model that rewards people based more on tenure than on demonstration of excellence,” Marks told The Australian.

“I would like to move more to a model that rewards people based on outcomes, particularly some of our junior staff.”

He has continued to defend the ABC’s pay offer as “fair and reasonable” and said anything more could potentially compromise services to audiences.

Ahead of the negotiations, media union federal president and ABC environment reporter Michael Slezak said he did not think Marks’ comments were helpful but he remained open to future possibilities.

“We’re here with a really positive mindset to try to get something done,” he said.

“We’re working through the options at the moment but we’re not ruling anything in or out at this stage.

“It depends where things go and what members want to do.”

Thousands of journalists, camera operators, technicians and other ABC workers went on strike for 24 hours from last Wednesday, forcing the channel to broadcast re-runs, clips from BBC News, and contributions from non-union staff.

More than 4400 people work at the ABC, including 2000 in news, the largest division.

-AAP