diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
index 1285dccb3..c90c59d58 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
@@ -378,9 +378,15 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriter<T> extends ExecutionContextUserSupport implemen
 			// Woodstox >= 3.2.9 we want to disable its
 			// automatic end element feature (see:
 			// http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/WSTX-165) per
-			// http://jira.springframework.org/browse/BATCH-761.
+			// http://jira.springframework.org/browse/BATCH-761).
 			outputFactory.setProperty("com.ctc.wstx.automaticEndElements", Boolean.FALSE);
 		}
+		if (outputFactory.isPropertySupported("com.ctc.wstx.outputValidateStructure")) {
+			// On restart we don't write the root element so we have to disable
+			// structural validation (see: 
+			// http://jira.springframework.org/browse/BATCH-1681).
+			outputFactory.setProperty("com.ctc.wstx.outputValidateStructure", Boolean.FALSE);
+		}
 
 		try {
 			if (transactional) {
diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
index 4db326204..91a8beac9 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
@@ -106,13 +106,14 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 		writer = createItemWriter();
 		writer.open(executionContext);
 		writer.write(items);
+		writer.write(items);
 		writer.close();
 
 		// check the output is concatenation of 'before restart' and 'after
 		// restart' writes.
 		String outputFile = getOutputFileContent();
-		assertEquals(2, StringUtils.countOccurrencesOf(outputFile, TEST_STRING));
-		assertEquals("<root>" + TEST_STRING + TEST_STRING + "</root>", outputFile.replace(" ", ""));
+		assertEquals(3, StringUtils.countOccurrencesOf(outputFile, TEST_STRING));
+		assertEquals("<root>" + TEST_STRING + TEST_STRING + TEST_STRING + "</root>", outputFile.replace(" ", ""));
 	}
 
 	@Test