The first hospital porters returned to work in Dundee, less than 24 hours after calling an end to 12 weeks of strike action.
Union chiefs said the handful would become a landslide by the weekend after another day of productive talks with NHS Tayside bosses.
They have been working to speedily thrash out timetables for the phased return to work in light of the sheer number of staff to work back into rotas.
The health board is also considering the implications of the increased duties that porters agreed to as part of the pay offer they accepted following a ballot on Tuesday.
By Monday of next week, however, Unite union regional organiser Colin Coupar said the hospitals should have returned to normal, with all porters back at work.
“We have had further productive talks and are now starting to phase porters back into work,” he said.
“We are doing so with sensitivity as the first few will filter-in alongside volunteers who have been helping out in their absence.
“There will be larger numbers returning over the weekend and all should be back to normal by Monday.”
On Wednesday, all sign of the strikes were being removed from the Ninewells Hospital site.
Pickets had been set-up on a roundabout at the main entrance, but staff hired a van to remove tents, braziers, banners and sofas ahead of the return to work.
Tuesday’s decision by striking porters to accept an NHS Tayside pay offer ended four months of hugely disruptive industrial action.
It will see them return to work on a higher wage and with additional duties that bring them into line with porters at other Tayside hospitals.
Unite union members voted by 9-1 in favour of the deal. The 11 members of staff who voted to reject the deal are also returning to work.
Doug Cross, vice-chairman of NHS Tayside, said: “Patient safety has always been our overriding consideration throughout this dispute.
“We are now looking forward to returning to what we do best caring for patients and their families.”