Human rights trainings

In 2020, due to specific pandemic conditions, we continued to hold training courses with select groups, focusing on raising awareness for human rights risks and impacts from our activities. Since 2019, the e-learning courses for OMV Petrom’s Human rights, a tool valid for all employees within the OMV Petrom Group, became a part of the “My Success Factors” as a voluntary course for all employees. This module is an interactive 30-minute training session that teaches a basic understanding of human rights in general and their relevance to our business specifically. It provides an opportunity for employees to test their knowledge using concrete, real-life examples. This year 1,197 employees from OMV Petrom Group were trained through e-learning course (around 600 hours,11% of total employees). Our e-learning program on human rights has been revisited by most of the employees and is now made available in three languages. Additionally, another 150 persons that were working from home and belong to a special target group category of persons exposed to human rights risks received special courses through e-mail. We have also created a stand-alone human rights page on our external website, with our human rights policy.

 

Human rights activity has a specific KPI and is included in the Sustainability Strategy 2025: Training is part of the employees’ development goals. As every year, a communication campaign for supporting human rights at work and at home was conducted in December, when International Human Rights Day was brought to the employees’ attention under the message: “We are all together – Standup4human rights All employees Group-wide were informed about our commitment and invited to complete the human rights e-learning program.

Risks and impacts from human rights activities

OMV Petrom’s operational activities may have impacts on the rights of local communities, in particular, when it obtains temporary or permanent access to their land for Group’s projects that may involve the physical and/or economic displacement of these populations. Also, noise and dust emissions and other potential impacts may also have consequences on the livelihood of neighboring communities. Consequently, the access to the land of local communities and their right to health and an adequate standard of living are two salient issues for OMV Petrom.

The OMV Petrom promotes human rights principles to the private security companies it hires in connection with its activities. These companies incorporate them through the training provided to security staff. The prevention of forced and child labour in the supply chain is another major area of concern. A project may contribute to human rights negative impacts if for its realization are involved project contractors with poor labour practices. Another example directly linked to a negative human right impact can be related to the security forces stationed to protect assets that use excessive force against people from communities or are not compliant with labor regulations (i.e., hiring of underage workers, discrimination in hiring practice or pay).

Our 2025 sustainability target► Provide Human rights trainings for all employees exposed to human rights risks by 2025.
Status 2020► Training on human rights through e-learning tools and special workshops for the persons exposed to human rights risks; 26% from targeted group.
Action plan to achieve the target► Further promotion of human rights e-learning courses across the Group.
► Human rights classroom training session in Assets for communities’ needs.

 

Target Group = employees in countries with elevated human rights risks and functions responsible or accountable for the implementation of our human rights responsibilities (Human Resources, Security, Site Management, HSSE Auditing, Community Relations/Community Development, Procurement, Ombudsmen) as well as the corresponding corporate functions. 200 employees are in corporate functions managing human rights risks as well as the corresponding functions in countries with elevated human rights risks.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) supported