COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) - Employees at a Carlsberg warehouse on the outskirts of Copenhagen returned to work yesterday, ending a five-day strike over a decision to cut their daily ration of free beer, their union said.

Some 200 warehouse workers in Hoeje Taastrup had walked off the job last Wednesday after their daily beer ration was cut from three bottles to one.

Around 50 drivers for the brewery had joined the work action in solidarity with their thirsty colleagues.

"We have agreed with management that we will meet very soon to find a temporary solution while waiting for a legal settlement of the matter," 3F union delegate Michael Christensen said in a statement on the union's website.

The strike had "disrupted beer deliveries to the Zealand island," Carlsburg's communications director Jens Bekke told AFP.

Carlsberg, the world's fourth largest brewer, on April 1 introduced "a new policy on alcohol consumption in the workplace and now only authorises drinking beer in the canteen during the lunch hour," he said.

Now, "only drivers are exceptionally allowed three beers a day and the warehouse workers wanted the same privilege, but were not given it," Bekke explained.