Community Grievances

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 reduces 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. Our grievance management system is based on dialogue with our stakeholders first and foremost and is designed to prevent any retaliation risks. The CGM helps OMV and those potentially impacted by its operations to resolve issues without resorting to the legal system. However, OMV’s CGM does not hinder or prevent affected stakeholders, including local communities, from accessing judicial or other remedies for their complaints or grievances. The CGM offers a channel for resolving grievances out of court and, depending on the case, provides a remedy to community members (for more information on our approach to community grievance management, see the OMV website). 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) in 2020. In addition, a new CGM was established at SapuraOMV operated assets in Malaysia in 2020.

During 2020, we received reports of 812 grievances: 367 grievances relating to our impact on society ¹ Society category grievances include noise, dust, land acquisition, access to project benefits, or other disturbances relating to OMV activities. Data excluding Borealis. received (243 resolved); 445 grievances concerning an impact on the environment ² Environment category grievances include land degradation, water pollution, air pollution, etc. Data excluding Borealis. received (357 resolved); zero human rights grievances received 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. Data excluding Borealis.. The open cases will be handled during 2021.

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.

The alignment of CGMs with the 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. In 2020, we conducted an assessment in New Zealand and established a CGM in line with UN Effectiveness Criteria in Malaysia ⁴ For Malaysian assets, we took a different approach to alignment with the UN Effectiveness Criteria, given that the CGM was only established in 2020. Instead of assessing an established CGM, we worked with an external expert to establish a CGM in alignment with the UN Effectiveness Criteria from the start.. The assessments were performed by a third-party expert. The sites already assessed account for 98% of all registered grievances at OMV in 2020. We will conduct assessments of the CGMs according to the UN Effectiveness Criteria at additional OMV sites in 2021. In 2019, CGM assessments were carried out in Austria (Upstream, Schwechat Refinery) and at the Burghausen refinery in Germany. The major UN Effectiveness Criteria for OMV were determined to be transparency and predictability. In 2020, the following key improvements were made to the CGMs:

• In 2020, the Petrobrazi refinery stepped up its external outreach to local communities to inform them about the CGM and increase its use for resolving community concerns.
• The Schwechat and Burghausen refineries further improved their public information on local accessibility of the CGM.
• Increased predictability of the CGM: The three assessed sites are in the process of reworking their local community grievance management standards to ensure consistency, structure, and greater predictability in handling community grievances.

Sustainability Strategy 2025 Target

• Assess Community Grievance Mechanisms of all sites against UN Effectiveness Criteria ⁵ 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. by 2025

Status 2020

• Seven out of ten sites in scope ⁶ The target scope includes production sites where OMV is an operator. In 2020, Borealis was not included in the scope of this target. In 2020, a Community Grievance Mechanism was operational at ten sites: seven in Upstream (Austria, Romania, Tunisia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Yemen, Kazakhstan) and three in Downstream (Austria, Romania, Germany). assessed (Romania Upstream, Petrobrazi refinery in Romania, Austria Upstream, Schwechat refinery in Austria, Burghausen refinery in Germany, New Zealand Upstream, Malaysia Upstream)

Action Plan to Achieve the Target

• Follow-up on CGM assessments conducted in 2020
• Conduct a self-assessment at Borealis to create a baseline for the organization’s CGM alignment to the UN Effectiveness Criteria

SDG targets: 10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status; 16.6 Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels; 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels