The workers of the Longview tea garden, on the outskirts of Siliguri, on a relay hunger strike at the tea garden for two weeks to demand full payment of last year’s Durga Puja bonus, withdrew their fast on Friday evening.

Representatives of the workers’ union said that a source in the state labour department assured them of a tripartite meeting among the management, union and administration on September 9 in Siliguri to discuss their demand.

“We had a meeting with officials of the labour department at Siliguri on Friday. During the meeting, we asked the department to intervene and resolve the workers’ problem in the tea garden (Longview). The workers failed to get last year’s complete Puja bonus so far. During the meeting we got an assurance from the department that next week a tripartite meeting would be held. After that we withdrew the movement,” Harihar Acharya, the vice-president of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU), said on Saturday.

As this year’s Durga Puja is approaching and a meeting to fix the bonus is expected next month, workers had organised the relay hunger strike to get last year’s dues. They stopped working since August 10 over pending dues. The management on August 21 announced suspension of work.