Health, Safety, and Well-Being

Material Topic: Health, Safety, and Well-Being

Reducing health and safety risks for OMV employees, customers, and third parties, such as communities, and promoting physical and mental health in an integrative way

Key GRIs

• GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety 2018
• GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016

NaDiVeG

• Employee and social concerns

Most relevant SDGs

Ensuring the health, safety, and security of our employees, contractors, and assets is essential for OMV. Employee health and well-being are the foundation for successful company performance, as they are core elements of ensuring the ability to work. OMV aims to adhere to the highest standards to provide its employees and contractors with a safe workplace.

OMV’s HSSE vision is “Committed to Zero Harm – Protect People, Environment, and Assets.” This vision is embedded in the HSSE Policy, which is OMV’s public commitment to health, safety, security, and the environment. Our chemicals subsidiary, Borealis, is committed to implementing the guidelines of the Responsible Care Global Charter, which is the chemical industry’s voluntary initiative aimed at continuous improvement in health, safety, and environmental performance.

The OMV Group HSSE strategy sets out the mid-term strategic goals and targets to support the Group’s business strategy. The HSSE Strategy 2025 is based on a framework that was developed in 2012 and has since been regularly updated. As the OMV Group comprehensively updated its transformational business strategy (OMV Strategy 2030) in 2022 and bearing in mind the substantial changes ongoing in the regulatory environment, a major review of the HSSE strategy was conducted during 2023, resulting in an updated HSSE Strategy 2030. While proven HSSE management concepts will be continued and further developed, it was identified that HSSE culture, contractor management, and parts of safety and environmental management need a stronger and updated strategic focus over the coming years.

The strategy revision process included a large number of stakeholders. Changes in the business, specifically the new low-carbon and recycling businesses, were discussed during 13 meetings with the responsible managers of the various areas. A SWOT analysis was conducted over several weeks with numerous subject matter experts and the involvement of over 50 senior managers at two dedicated workshops. The massive emerging changes driven by international regulations, such as sustainability reporting and environmental management, were evaluated to find strategic responses to how to handle them in future. And finally, the proposed updates to the strategy were discussed with all Executive Board members of OMV, OMV Petrom, and Borealis in a unique half-day on-site workshop. Executive management challenged the proposed strategic targets and provided steering and backing for their implementation.

The updated HSSE Strategy 2030 is strongly linked to the company Values and can be summarized as follows:

• We care about safety and the physical and mental well-being of our people; for the planet we live on; for the people we interact with; for our locations and assets.
• We’re curious about our future partners, contractors, and technologies so we can develop the business relationship together to achieve the highest HSSE standards.
• We progress to enable the successful transformation of our company toward sustainability and to become the industry leader in HSSE.

While we are able to build on a solid foundation for the further strategic development of the various HSSE disci­plines and their integration in the business, we have identified key areas that will receive a much higher focus in terms of how we manage HSSE in the business in future.

• The aim is to develop a company culture where HSSE shapes decision-making at any time and at every level, based on highly committed leaders, a competent workforce of employees and contractor employees, and an atmosphere of openness where everybody has the confidence to speak up.
• Given the high degree of contractor work in our business, we will further strengthen our supplier and contractor management capabilities. We aim to improve the selection process to ensure that only contractors with appropriate HSSE capabilities work with us. When needed, we will put effort (e.g., training, supervision) into helping contractors reach the expected HSSE performance levels. We will focus on long-term relationships with our key contractors based on mutual trust and develop their HSSE culture jointly.
• We will leverage the opportunities afforded by new technologies to improve our systems and tools to manage HSSE, including product stewardship.

Overview of the Updates to the HSSE Strategy 2030

Rollout and implementation of the updated HSSE strategy began in Q4/23. The data reported in the OMV Sustainability Report 2023 is therefore still based on the 2025 HSSE strategy.

HSSE management is governed by the internal HSSE Directive, which defines key expectations in compliance with internal HSSE regulations at various levels of the organizational structure, as well as across Group and local functions. This internal Directive sets out the principles and rules for the management of HSSE-related risks and activities throughout the life cycle of the Group’s business and activities, including capital projects, mergers, and acquisitions. The Directive also defines key HSSE responsibilities for all OMV Group employees, partners, and contractors. It additionally stipulates the continuous improvement of HSSE performance. The HSSE Directive defines core aspects of HSSE management, grouped into twelve elements revolving around the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. For each element, the HSSE Directive defines the approach to follow for effective HSSE management.

Other corporate regulations governing the topic are HSSE Risk Management, Process Safety Management, Occupational Safety Management, Contractor HSSE Management, Management of Hazardous Substances, and Personnel Transportation, as well as Reporting, Investigation, and Classification of Incidents, which together provide the framework for safety management. Our Major Accident Prevention Policy sets out the overall aims and guidelines for controlling the risk of a major accident as part of the OMV Group’s operations. Acknowledging that the risk of major accidents in onshore or offshore operations related to oil and gas extraction, transportation, refining, and distribution activities is significant, and recognizing that such major accidents can have severe consequences for the environment and affected persons, OMV firmly believes that a strong awareness of HSSE embedded in the company culture is the foundation for all its operations and relationships with contractors. Our Contractor HSSE Management Standard defines the minimum requirements for integrating HSSE issues into all phases of the contract life cycle and into the contractor management process. This standard aims to define a structured process for the HSSE management of contractors, from selection through contract close-out. All 15 Group HSSE regulations have been implemented at Borealis, following an intensive alignment process conducted in 2021.

The HSSE strategy is implemented by means of annual plans and targets. In a combined top-down and bottom-up process, 43 local annual HSSE plans are developed and monitored centrally.

Core Aspects of HSSE Management

Governance

The health and safety of the people who work for us are key priorities at OMV. The HSSE strategy and its implementation are aligned with and fully embedded in the corporate strategy and the corporate governance structure. Leadership responsibility is assigned to the members of the Executive Board. The Executive Board’s remuneration is subject to a Health & Safety Malus (read more in Sustainability Governance). In 2022, focus areas related to safety were defined, with an Executive Board member assigned as the owner of each. For instance, one OMV Executive Board Member serves as the focus topic owner for process safety performance in the OMV Group. In regular update meetings, the owners discuss updates on process safety challenges and achievements.

Group HSSE is responsible for coordinating health and safety topics across the Group. Group HSSE is led by the VP HSSE, who reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer. The OMV Group HSSE department is organized into specialized teams with experienced experts in the following areas:

• Development and implementation of OMV’s HSSE strategy, regulations, and processes
• HSSE risk assessment
• Incident investigation
• HSSE data analysis and reporting
• Health management
• Occupational safety management
• Process safety management
• Security and resilience management
• Environmental management

This is supplemented by local HSSE officers at each site, along with local subject matter experts. For example, at each refinery, we have a dedicated employee who heads the process safety management. This individual is in direct contact with and actively collaborates and communicates with all departments that manage process safety as part of their daily business. This individual also receives process safety guidance from a centralized Process Safety Advisor overseeing the whole of the Refining business unit. In addition, there are HSSE departments at OMV Petrom and Borealis that oversee their specific issues and coordinate their local HSSE officers and experts. The OMV Petrom and Borealis HSSE departments report functionally to the VP HSSE at Group level.

In line with the HSSE Directive, clear roles and responsibilities are defined for all staff, line management, and senior management. Line management is responsible for ensuring that HSSE issues are integrated into all business decisions and activities. They are required to demonstrate commitment and leadership by acting as role models and taking appropriate measures to control and manage all HSSE risks in their spheres of responsibility. OMV’s HSSE management includes interaction with employees or their representatives (works councils, trade unions) as a channel of engagement regarding issues that are particularly important and necessary for improvement. For instance, Borealis has HSE Forums at each location, where employee representatives are consulted and informed about the HSE management system. The HSSE department organizes HSSE Days for OMV’s various units to inform employees about HSSE topics.