All businesses benefit from having healthy employees. A healthy workforce is essential if a company is to carry out its work, and companies have a basic ethical duty to protect their employees from circumstances that could harm their health.

In today’s world, employee health is more important than ever. Human health is deteriorating in most corners of the globe, with incidences of infectious and chronic diseases growing at unprecedented rates. In addition, the psycho-social health of many people is being impacted by changes in social norms, life styles and demands for efficiency. Health issues are affecting corporate and public economies, the social fabric of societies, and obviously the quality of life for the people whose health is at risk and their families.

At Maersk, recent work to improve employee health has resulted in a “Group Health Manual”, which requires management programmes to be in place to assess, monitor and document health risks linked to chemical, physical, biological, ergonomic and psychological hazards at the workplace. This could involve air quality, noise, exposure to potentially hazardous substances, workloads and discrimination. Our policies also require us to monitor compliance with national statutory requirements in all areas of health management.
 
Starting in 2011, the health manual will be drawn into our business units’ annual self-assessments.