Occupational injury to third party personnel

Novartis recognizes its responsibility to promote the health and safety not only of its associates, but also of Third Party Personnel.

Third Party Personnel are those individuals employed by a Third Party which invoices Novartis for the hours worked. They work regularly on Novartis premises and are managed by Novartis supervisory staff. Some companies term these associates, including sub-contracted workers, as "Contractors".

Novartis employed an average of 7'700 people as Third Party Personnel during 2007. There were 111 occupational injuries with or without lost time among this group. This is 13 injuries less than in 2006. Furthermore, as in the past five years, we had no fatalities among the Third Party Personnel in 2007.

At Novartis we have decided not to calculate the Lost Time Accident Rate, nor the Total Recordable Case Rate for the Third Party Personnel. Owing to the fact that we cannot precisely determine the number of hours worked for this group on a global level, therefore the rates would be inaccurate and not reliable. Nonetheless, as for Novartis' own associates, any accident is rigorously investigated in order to reduce the total number of work related accidents for the Third Party Personnel.