Health expert calls it ‘absurd’ that Carlsberg warehouse workers are striking over fewer bottled beers in the refrigerators

Warehouse workers at Danish brewing giant Carlsberg are striking because management has decided that the employees may no longer have their customary three free bottled beers a day at the workplace, reports Business.dk.

Carlsberg has implemented a new workplace alcohol policy that now limits employees to one bottle of beer a day at lunchtime.

That move resulted in employees at the brewer’s Fredericia facility to strike yesterday. This morning, workers at Carlsberg’s Terminal East morning shift in suburban Høje Taastrup also left the worksite prior to their shifts in protest of the new policy.

Dennis Onsvig, union representative for the Terminal East employees, said the strike wasn’t just about the workers’ right to three beers a day.

‘We’ve actually stopped working because Carlsberg’s management violated the bargaining agreement by making a policy change without our input,’ said Onsvig. ‘There was no dialogue over the issue at all, and that’s just not good enough.’

He added that Carlsberg’s drivers are still allowed to drink three beers during the course of their shifts.

Carlsberg’s head of communications, Jens Bekke, said the new policy was unlikely to be changed back. But he pointed out that the union’s objections to the removal of bottled beer in the refrigerators is basically a moot point.

‘We did remove the extra beers from all refrigerators around the worksite that the employees were allotted for the day. But we have also set up taps from which staff can drink freely, and so the employees can certainly manage to drink more than one beer during their lunchtime breaks,’ said Bekke.

Employees at Carlsberg’s Fredericia location resumed work this morning although their representatives say the issue is not resolved. Onsvig said that he did not know when the Terminal East employees would return to the job.

Carlsberg’s management had previously tried to take away their drivers’ right to three beers a day but failed. Instead, alcohol locks were installed in all company trucks, meaning that the vehicles will not start if a driver registers an alcohol blood level of more than the legal .05 percent.

Claus Hyldahl, head of health and disease prevention facility Lægernes Testcenter, called it ‘amazing’ that employees are still allowed to drink alcohol at work in 2010.

‘Some employees may think they’re not affected by three beers,’ he said. ‘But for most people there’s a significant difference between their second and third drinks. And if you’re not affected after three drinks, then you have a serious alcohol problem.’

Carlsberg’s strike isn’t the first where brewery employees have championed their right to drink alcohol on the job. In 2005 workers at southwest Zealand’s Harboe Brewery went on strike because management decided they could no longer drink on shift.