Occupational Safety

OMV aims to adhere to the highest standards to provide its employees and contractors a safe workplace. This is a moral obligation and also necessary for seamless operations without costly shutdowns or delays in operations.

Management and Due Diligence Procedures

Risk Assessments and Audits

Major risks and the respective mitigation measures are evaluated and monitored within the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (EWRM) process, documented in a Group-wide database (Active Risk Management System; ARMS), and reported to top management twice a year or on an ad-hoc basis whenever issues arise. Senior management is directly involved in the review of risks identified as a top priority. Sites are audited regularly based on a Group-wide HSSE audit program. In 2021, we visited Borealis sites and conducted a safety culture review at Borealis.

Incident Reporting and Investigation

All employees and contractors are encouraged to bring to the attention of line management unsafe conditions and behaviors in order to identify and resolve potential issues that might otherwise lead to future incidents or accidents. We acknowledge these suggestions for improvement submitted by employees and contractors locally in the Report of the Month and at corporate level in the Report of the Quarter. These are one-pagers that we distribute widely to facilitate the sharing of lessons learned.

This year we focused on quality review and analysis of data entered in our central HSSE reporting tool (OMV Synergi). All incidents, hazards, HSSE walks, audits, findings, and defined actions are reported and tracked in this tool. Regular online training is being organized via the My Success Factors learning platform to ensure effective use of the new tool by highlighting the importance of data input quality. Dashboards for the significant HSSE data and relevant KPIs (e.g., LTIs, TRIs, HiPos, process safety events, action status, etc.) were set up and made available to various management levels throughout the Group. Our aim here was to increase awareness regarding OMV Synergi entries to boost their quality and transparency, and to improve data owner accountability.

We continued to investigate incidents and accidents using the knowledge of our incident investigator pool members and other technical experts. Our aim was to find the root causes of incidents and carry out suitable and necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of more severe incidents. At the same time, we remained focused on verifying the effectiveness of actions implemented in the past years after severe and high-potential incidents (HiPos), including process safety incidents. We also further developed the incident investigation process and established a subprocess to share HSSE information and promote our lessons learned as an organization. Our Incident Investigation Panel met on a quarterly basis to obtain a clear overview regarding the whole process and to implement practical actions for its improvement.

Training, Awareness Raising, and Safety Promotion Activities

All staff is required to be familiar with the HSSE Policy, internal HSSE regulations, and the relevant legislation. They actively contribute to and further develop HSSE awareness as part of the corporate culture, stop and report unsafe or irresponsible acts and conditions, and report any incidents and non-compliance. OMV employees at all levels are regularly trained on their roles and responsibilities. Moreover, our Life Saving Rules are presented and discussed regularly during awareness programs, workshops, management walk-arounds and safety walks, as well as during various meetings.

Education and training are important for informing workers and managers about workplace hazards and controls so they can work more safely and be more productive. In 2021, we produced two training videos to address the risk of dropped objects and working next to high-voltage power lines. These training videos will be rolled out in the organization in 2022.

We believe that promoting open dialogue and establishing a culture in which health and safety are integrated into every employee’s role are effective ways to empower people to work safely. Workers are engaged in launching, implementing, evaluating, and improving health and safety programs. They work closely with their managers to find joint solutions to common problems, which helps managers pinpoint issues, while workers are motivated and encouraged to improve their own safety. We continued to concentrate on quality over quantity in terms of reporting, HSSE walks, safety walks, and action close-outs. In addition, we continued our efforts to make safety a top priority in the minds of employees. We are focusing more attention on improving our HSSE walks and safety walks by encouraging open dialogue during these. This promotes understanding of the challenges in the operating fields and increases trust between the workforce and management.

Focus on Contractor Safety

The safety of our contractors is just as important as the safety of our own employees. For this reason, we have established processes that require contractors to work according to our standards. Our Contractor HSSE Management Process begins when we issue the scope of work with information about HSSE requirements and the HSSE key performance indicators (KPIs). The process continues through the tender stage with the HSSE evaluation and capability audit, if needed. Once the contract terms are agreed and the contract is awarded, but before work begins at the site, we reinforce our expectations and requirements during kick-off meetings, HSSE induction, site specific trainings, and other joint meetings. The presence of contractors at our sites is monitored permanently using an electronic registration system (refineries) or paper sign system (e.g., presence sheet, permit to work, induction sheet, etc.). During the contract period, we monitor our contractors by way of audits, inspections, joint HSSE or safety walks, service quality meetings, forums, and workshops, using the outcomes to share information and encourage improvement of our HSSE performance as a team. In order to increase the awareness and knowledge of contract owners, contract holders, procurement staff, and HSSE experts about our Contractor HSSE Management Process, we continued to deliver specific training explaining how HSSE requirements and tools are embedded in the source-to-contract process. We revised our Contractor HSSE Management Standard in 2021, and these training sessions will be promoted even more in 2022.

2021 Actions

In our operations, we recognized safe behavior and good safety practices to improve the relationship between the workforce and management, and to encourage safe behavior in a positive manner.

• We acknowledged the safe behavior of individuals and teams on the spot during various site visits and the “stop work” actions in online forums, or at periodical management meetings.
• On April 28, 2021, we again held an open online session with more than 300 participants from throughout the Group to celebrate the UN’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work. We informed the participants about recent incidents and lessons learned, the Integrated Risk Register, and our progress on Life Saving Rules training. We also had a session on the prevention and management of work-related musculoskeletal disorders based on the “Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load” campaign 2020–2022.
• We organized two safety culture owners meetings, where initiatives from sites were presented. These included a safety culture initiative during work-over operations in Yemen, the Logistics East road safety program at OMV Petrom, a hazard hunt initiative in Tunisia, the Safety Leaders program from the development group in the refineries, and the Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) program and Safety Centers at Borealis.
• In 2021, we again organized two meetings of focus area owners to discuss key initiatives related to HSSE aspects in contractor management with senior management. The subjects covered were supplier management (source-to-contract and sustainable procurement at OMV, an offshore rig intake audit done side by side with suppliers in Norway), the contractor preparation process for an upcoming turnaround in the Schwechat refinery, and the contractor management (COMA) process and Go4Zero initiative at Borealis.

Despite these initiatives, our occupational safety performance declined in 2021. In 2020, we had no fatalities and a significant reduction of lost work day incidents (LWDIs). Unfortunately, this very positive trend did not continue in 2021. Three contractor employees died in road transportation activities. As a reaction to these tragic events, we harmonized the contractual safety obligations for transportation contractors in our operations, so that the requirements for contractors working in all business divisions are the same. We also increased our auditing and inspection efforts to verify implementation of our road transportation management requirements.

The number of injured personnel also increased, both among our own employees as well as contractors. We therefore rolled out a Hazard Hunt campaign throughout the organization. Employees at all locations were encouraged to report hazards and unsafe conditions and to develop actions for improvement.

Lost-Time Injury Rate² Lost-time injuries are any occupational injuries resulting in fatalities, permanent total disabilities, and lost workday cases, but excluding restricted work cases and medical treatment cases.

Per 1 mn hours worked

Total Recordable Injury Rate³ Total recordable injuries are any injuries resulting in fatalities, permanent total disabilities, lost workday cases, restricted work cases, and medical treatment cases.

Per 1 mn hours worked

Outlook

In 2022, we will focus on the alignment of contractual obligations related to road transportation safety and more specific audits of road transportation safety at contractors to prevent tragic accidents from occurring as they did in 2021.

Targets 2025

• Achieve a Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) of around 1.0 per 1 mn hours worked
• Achieve zero work-related fatalities

Targets 2030

• Stabilize Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) at 1.0 per 1 mn hours worked
• Achieve zero work-related fatalities

Status 2021

• TRIR: 0.96 per 1 mn hours worked
• 3 fatalities

Relevant SDGs

SDG targets:
3.9 By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination
8.8 Protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment