OMV promotes collaboration and engagement with contractors and sub-contractors on health, safety, and other sustainability topics. Engagement with workers in the value chain occurs in all stages of our business relationship and at all stakeholder levels (both management and on-site workers). To increase awareness of embedding HSSE and sustainability principles in our operations, we organize annual contractor forums and training sessions, where we engage with management representatives from our contractors and suppliers. Furthermore, we conduct quarterly service meetings between business representatives in OMV, Procurement, and HSSE, and selected contractor representatives to review and improve service performance. To gain a better understanding of on-site conditions, we annually conduct joint HSSE or safety walks and on-site human rights checks. Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation measures that have been put in place, we conduct annual HSSE audits, TfS audits, and contractor audits with external auditors. During the reporting period, OMV continued its efforts to protect workers in the value chain by implementing robust ethical standards and thorough engagement actions. Moving forward, OMV aims to continuously improve by enhancing grievance mechanisms, increasing training on human rights, and fostering stronger engagement with suppliers to ensure fair treatment. In a nutshell, our engagement actions address all identified material positive and negative impacts and mitigate associated risks.
The roles and responsibilities for contractor HSSE management are shared between Business, Procurement, and HSSE. The HSSE VPs, who report directly to the CEO, and the Procurement and Investor Relations & Sustainability SVPs, who report directly to the CFO, oversee this engagement with workers in the value chain.
The effectiveness of the engagement with workers in the value chain or their representatives is assessed using a range of tools. A 360-degree evaluation is conducted to understand if the regularity and format of the supplier engagement methods used by OMV meet expected requirements. As part of our human rights due diligence in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), we utilize the Human Rights Self-Assessment tool to track the effectiveness of a business entity’s human rights management. The self-assessment questionnaire, based on our Human Rights Responsibility Matrix, covers topics including rights-holder engagement, working conditions, and occupational health and safety. As an example, we include questions about the steps being taken by the business to engage suppliers, contractors, and business partners in identifying and managing modern slavery incidents, to establish monitoring systems, and to track the effectiveness of measures being taken. The Human Rights Self-Assessment questionnaire is filled in by local management, before being analyzed and assessed by independent external human rights professionals. Based on the findings, we develop an action plan to address the concerns raised and to close the gaps in the implementation of our human rights commitments that have been identified. We utilize third-party services to conduct the Human Rights Self-Assessment, ensuring compliance with the UNGP (United Nations Guiding Principles) requirement to assess the effective of the engagement.
OMV takes specific steps to gain insights into the perspectives of workers who may be particularly vulnerable. We identify these vulnerable groups and have established feedback mechanisms through our grievance channels and TfS audits to gather insights from workers who may be especially susceptible to impacts or marginalized. Additionally, we conduct interviews with contractors’ blue-collar workers during audits to further understand their perspectives and identify any potential issues. Each audit finding classified with a red flag is followed up and analyzed by the Procurement team in collaboration with business representatives and any other relevant function (e.g., HSSE, Legal, Internal audit, and Compliance). Information on the outcome of the audit is made available to the supplier, and the supplier is requested to submit a proposed corrective plan with concrete measures and an implementation timeline.