Kalimpong, Sept. 5: Subscribers of Reliance Telecom’s mobile phone service got a breather today after the Janmukti Reliance Employees’ Association decided to suspend its agitation at the company’s installations across the hills and Sikkim till September 15.

The talks between the employees and the company ended in a stalemate in Darjeeling this evening. The Association’s representatives refused the compensation package offered by Reliance officials and, instead, gave them till September 15 to come up with a more agreeable solution to its 11-point demands, most of which pertain to a better service package for the guards.

Reliance’s mobile phone service across the region has been disrupted since the morning of August 31 following an indefinite agitation by its security guards demanding that they be made permanent employees. The guards had switched off the power to the mobile towers.

Apart from job security, the Association wants the guards to be given their salary directly from Reliance. It has also demanded uniforms, shoes, winter wear, umbrellas and raincoats for them.

D. K. Pradhan, adviser to the Association, said a solution looked impossible if Reliance failed to meet the fundamental demand of ensuring the job security of the employees. A Reliance representative at the meeting, Rajesh Khandelwal, said he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The row between the Association and the company has been going on since May and all efforts to arrive at an amicable solution since then have failed. However, the opposing parties could still meet tomorrow to thrash out a solution, said sources.