Associates bully fat people heading off (2-7)

I believe the answer is:

co-workers

'associates' is the definition.
(co-worker is a kind of associate)

'bully fat people heading off' is the wordplay.
'bully' becomes 'cow' (cow can mean to bully or oppress).
'fat people' becomes 'porkers' (porker is a derogatory term for a fat person).
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'porkers' with its first letter taken away is 'orkers'.
'cow'+'orkers'='CO-WORKERS'

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app