Tea plantation workers have decided to return to work for their current daily wage of Tk 120, with negotiations over a pay hike set to continue, bdnews24.com reports.
The decision was announced after a meeting between officials of the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union and the administration on Sunday.
The workers have been promised an audience with the prime minister via video conferencing before the Durga Puja holiday to discuss their wage demands, according to the authorities.
Meanwhile, tea estate owners will pay the striking workers the wages that had accumulated during their work abstention.
Thousands of workers from 241 tea estates in the northeastern region have been campaigning for a daily wage of Tk 300 and launched a strike on Aug 9.
As the matter remained at an impasse, workers took to the streets in protest and vowed to continue demonstrating until the owners accepted their demands.
The strike raised concerns within the industry as it came during what is considered to be the peak season for tea harvesting.
Tea estate owners initially proposed to increase the daily wage to Tk 140, a Tk 20 rise, but the workers rejected it.
Eleven days into the strike on Aug 20, it appeared that a breakthrough had been reached as a plan to raise the daily wage by Tk 25 to Tk 145 was announced at a meeting between tea estate workers and the administration in Sreemangal.
But on Sunday, workers of 24 tea plantations in Habiganj blockaded the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway and issued a two-day ultimatum demanding Tk 300 in daily wages.
Wages are typically discussed during a meeting between the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union and the Bangladeshi Tea Parliament every two years. An agreement is signed after a consensus is reached and it forms the basis of the workers' salaries and allowances for the next two years.
The last two-year contract expired in December 2020. Afterwards, the Tea Workers Union asked the Bangladeshi Tea Parliament for a daily wage of Tk 300 on Jan 19, 2021. As many as 13 meetings between the two parties followed but the workers were no closer to having their demands met.