Community grievance management

Our approach to managing community grievances follows the precautionary principle of ensuring local approval for OMV operations by identifying and resolving the issues of concern to the local community early on. We strive to conduct our operations in a way that limits any disruption to our neighboring communities to a minimum; however, grievances may still arise. We manage these grievances through localized Community Grievance Mechanisms (CGMs). At OMV, a CGM is a key tool for preventing and managing our potential impacts on local communities and related social risks. The CGM stipulates a stringent approach to systematically receiving, documenting, addressing, and resolving grievances in all of the countries where we operate, therefore laying the foundation for our social license to operate. We define a grievance as an expression of dissatisfaction stemming from a real or perceived impact of the Company’s business activities. The CGM remained fully operational in all operated Upstream assets, in the three OMV refineries (Schwechat in Austria, Burghausen in Germany, and Petrobrazi in Romania), and at one power plant (Brazi in Romania).

During 2019, we received 1,196 grievances (640 grievances relating to our impact on society1The Social Progress Index, developed by the Social Progress Imperative, is a comprehensive measure of real quality of life, independent of economic indicators across countries. More details can be found at: www.socialprogress.org. received/531 resolved; 556 grievances concerning an impact on the environment2Environment category grievances include land degradation, water pollution, air pollution, etc. received/392 resolved; zero human rights grievances received3Human Rights category grievances are related to the “Essential” rights category in the OMV Human Rights Matrix: e.g., disproportionate use of force by security, incidents related to indigenous peoples rights, cases of forced or child labor.). The open cases will be handled during 2020.

In the interest of full alignment with IPIECA’s best practice for grievance management, OMV has set a target to assess the CGMs at all of its sites against the UN Effectiveness Criteria for Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms by 2025. The UN Effectiveness Criteria require the grievance mechanism to be legitimate, accessible, predictable, equitable, transparent, rights-compatible, a source of continuous learning, and based on engagement and dialogue.

In 2019, the assessments in Romania and Austria were finalized and the assessment at the Burghausen refinery in Germany conducted. The assessments were performed by a third-party independent consulting firm. The alignment of CGMs to UN Effectiveness Criteria is assessed by conducting a management processes review and consulting with internal and external stakeholders. The assessments result in recommendations and tailored action plans to improve grievance management at site level. The action plans are implemented by local management and monitored by the Corporate function. The sites already assessed represent 96% of all registered grievances at OMV in 2019. We will conduct assessments of the CGMs according to the UN Effectiveness Criteria at additional OMV sites in 2020.

Our operational Community Grievance Mechanism in Romania was the first one to be assessed against the UN Effectiveness Criteria. Romanian grievances account for a vast majority of all community grievances in the OMV Group. This pilot assessment took place in 2018. During 2019 a cross-departmental working group was formed to implement the resulting action plan. Subsequently the way community grievances were managed at OMV Petrom was redesigned as follows:

  • Expanded access points to enhance accessibility and equitability: Grievances can now be expressed through e-mail, phone, or through representative organizations.
  • Increased transparency and predictability of the CGM process for our stakeholders via standardized replies to grievances submitted
  • Greater legitimacy and equitability of decisions by providing an option for appeal
  • KPI monitoring established to allow for continuous learning

1 Society category grievances include noise, dust, land acquisition, access to project benefits, or other disturbances because of OMV activities.

2 Environment category grievances include land degradation, water pollution, air pollution, etc.

3 Human Rights category grievances are related to the “Essential” rights category in the OMV Human Rights Matrix, e.g., disproportionate use of force by security, incidents related to indigenous peoples rights, cases of forced or child labor.

4 UN Effectiveness Criteria for Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The UN Effectiveness Criteria require the grievance mechanism to be legitimate, accessible, predictable, equitable, transparent, rights-compatible, a source of continuous learning, and based on engagement and dialogue.

5 The target scope includes production sites where OMV is an operator. In 2019, a Community Grievance Mechanism was operational at 10 sites: 7 in Upstream (Austria, Romania, Tunisia, New Zealand, Norway, Yemen, Kazakhstan) and 3 in Downstream (Austria, Romania, Germany).