Merck provides employees with a wide variety of health programs in alignment with the highest standards of medical care and regulatory requirements to enhance their health and well-being. We are also committed to providing a safe working environment through taking preventive actions as well as closely tracking accidents, injuries or illnesses so that we can address problems promptly and work toward eliminating occupational injuries and illnesses.

Merck believes that there are many benefits to this approach. First, health is a key ingredient for optimal workforce performance. Whether at work or at home, sickness or injury often can have an impact on a person’s ability to perform and contribute at their usual level of functioning. Because Merck’s business is health, we believe we must lead by example. And finally, a constructive approach to employee health helps to recruit and retain top talent.

In addition, understanding what health issues most affect Merck’s workforce population can help us make the right investments to improve the health of our people.

Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) matters are closely connected and therefore we manage these through a collaborative approach across numerous Merck functions. A key element of our EHS management system is the monitoring of health and safety risks and performance. Health and safety performance is also an important consideration in our annual assessment of scorecard performance, which is tied to compensation.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.