diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 10527d2..0d64ad9 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@
  
 BUG FIXES
 
+PIG-5277: Spark mode is writing nulls among tuples to the output (workaround) (szita)
+
 PIG-5283: Configuration is not passed to SparkPigSplits on the backend (szita)
 
 PIG-5284: Fix flakyness introduced by PIG-3655 (szita)
diff --git a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/mapReduceLayer/PigOutputFormat.java b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/mapReduceLayer/PigOutputFormat.java
index 1acbd36..172e309 100644
--- a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/mapReduceLayer/PigOutputFormat.java
+++ b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/mapReduceLayer/PigOutputFormat.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.physicalLayer.relationalOperators.StoreFuncDecorator;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.shims.HadoopShims;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.util.MapRedUtil;
+import org.apache.pig.data.NonWritableTuple;
 import org.apache.pig.data.Tuple;
 import org.apache.pig.impl.PigContext;
 import org.apache.pig.impl.util.ObjectSerializer;
@@ -141,7 +142,9 @@
         public void write(WritableComparable key, Tuple value)
                 throws IOException, InterruptedException {
             if(mode == Mode.SINGLE_STORE) {
-                storeDecorator.putNext(value);
+                if (!(value instanceof NonWritableTuple)) {
+                    storeDecorator.putNext(value);
+                }
             } else {
                 throw new IOException("Internal Error: Unexpected code path");
             }
diff --git a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/JoinGroupSparkConverter.java b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/JoinGroupSparkConverter.java
index 3c037b4..c58bec2 100644
--- a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/JoinGroupSparkConverter.java
+++ b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/JoinGroupSparkConverter.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.spark.SparkUtil;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.spark.operator.POGlobalRearrangeSpark;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.spark.operator.POJoinGroupSpark;
+import org.apache.pig.data.NonWritableTuple;
 import org.apache.pig.data.Tuple;
 import org.apache.pig.impl.io.NullableTuple;
 import org.apache.pig.impl.io.PigNullableWritable;
@@ -209,7 +210,7 @@
                         out = (Tuple) result.result;
                         break;
                     case POStatus.STATUS_NULL:
-                        out = null;
+                        out = NonWritableTuple.INSTANCE;
                         break;
                     default:
                         throw new RuntimeException(
diff --git a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/OutputConsumerIterator.java b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/OutputConsumerIterator.java
index 85b2d1e..910eb26 100644
--- a/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/OutputConsumerIterator.java
+++ b/src/org/apache/pig/backend/hadoop/executionengine/spark/converter/OutputConsumerIterator.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import org.apache.pig.backend.executionengine.ExecException;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.physicalLayer.POStatus;
 import org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.physicalLayer.Result;
+import org.apache.pig.data.NonWritableTuple;
 import org.apache.pig.data.Tuple;
 
 abstract class OutputConsumerIterator implements java.util.Iterator<Tuple> {
@@ -59,6 +60,9 @@
                         return;
                     }
                     Tuple v1 = input.next();
+                    if (v1 instanceof NonWritableTuple) {
+                        v1 = null;
+                    }
                     attach(v1);
                 }
 
diff --git a/src/org/apache/pig/data/NonWritableTuple.java b/src/org/apache/pig/data/NonWritableTuple.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63bee32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/org/apache/pig/data/NonWritableTuple.java
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.pig.data;
+
+import java.io.DataInput;
+import java.io.DataOutput;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.pig.backend.executionengine.ExecException;
+
+/**
+ * A singleton Tuple type which is not picked up for writing by PigRecordWriter
+ */
+public class NonWritableTuple extends AbstractTuple {
+
+
+    public static final NonWritableTuple INSTANCE = new NonWritableTuple();
+
+    private NonWritableTuple(){}
+
+    @Override
+    public int size() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Object get(int fieldNum) throws ExecException {
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public List<Object> getAll() {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void set(int fieldNum, Object val) throws ExecException {
+        throw new ExecException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void append(Object val) {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public long getMemorySize() {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void readFields(DataInput arg0) throws IOException {
+        throw new IOException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void write(DataOutput arg0) throws IOException {
+        throw new IOException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int compareTo(Object o) {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
+}