As one of the most important players of the Romanian economy, with a complex value chain, our operations and products have a direct and indirect impact on a variety of stakeholders, such as employees, customers, business partners, suppliers, community, media, academic partners, industry associations, NGOs, investors, and others. OMV Petrom is committed to stakeholder engagement and is convinced that mutual respect, transparent behavior, and open dialogue are the best foundations for a good relationship with our diverse stakeholders. Identifying and responding to their needs can positively influence our license to operate, our competitive advantage, and our long-term success and social acceptance for future developments. Thus, we constantly ensure an active dialogue with all our stakeholders to establish win-win relationships, develop yearly social assessments, and make a conscious effort to comply with international sustainability frameworks, guidelines, and standards.
OMV Petrom cooperates with the main professional associations in the energy and oil industry and with other economic actors in the field. Together with these organizations, we provide professional support to state institutions, ministries, and energy agencies on climate change and environmental issues, harmonize legislation with EU requirements and promote sustainable principles in line with the SDGs. To fulfill our commitment and social responsibilities, we have increased the dialogue and support we offer to the local communities where we operate. Our stakeholder engagement activities take various forms, including active participation at forums, conferences with key stakeholders, expert committees and discussions, working groups, and organizing common projects discussions (partnerships). We also engage frequently with investors on ESG issues via one-to-one conversations, participations at external events and group meetings.
Dialogue with shareholders
OMV Petrom management is aware of its fundamental duty to represent and promote shareholder interests and recognizes its accountability for the Company’s performance and activities. During 2020, the Company’s top management and the Investor Relations (IR) team had an active presence on the local and foreign capital markets, by attending conferences and organizing calls for analysts and investors. In the context of the pandemic, the interactions took place mostly online, including for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, as there were no shareholders attending in person the meeting. In 2020, we attended 12 conferences and we virtually met around 90 investment funds from all over the world.
Such interactions provided the opportunity to regularly update investors and analysts on the Company’s response to the COVID-19 crisis and oil price volatility, as well as on the quarterly operational, financial performance and strategy execution. During 2020, the number of interactions with a focus on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) topics increased. More specifically, we received questions about the European Green Deal’s impact on our sustainability strategy and capital expenditure plans.
Dialogue with Trade Unions
Mutual respect of dialogue partners, good faith, and transparency shown in the relationship Employer-Trade Unions, combined with effective communication, were the main levers for maintaining the Company’s social equilibrium during 2020. We respect the freedom of association and collective employee representation. We make every effort to work constructively with employee representatives to achieve mutually satisfactory solutions and communicate to our employees all aspects of collective bargaining agreements by our internal network and direct mailing. Having the employees as the core of our activities, we place high on the agenda the dialogue with the Trade Unions, focusing our efforts to identify the optimal solutions for both the employees and the Company, reflecting the challenges of the year. Because of the pandemic, we had to take maximum safety measures to protect our employees, adding new digital tools to maintain contact with them and obtain feedback in real-time.
Since the start of the pandemic crisis, we have been engaged in dialogue with Trade Unions to find common responses to the new challenges that the business environment and employees’ life are facing.
We found solutions to protect the employees’ health and ensure business continuity. Isolation measures in critical facilities and extended shifts are only a few examples of the measures we have implemented during this difficult period. In the measures that we take with effects over the employees, we continuously inform and consult Trade Unions.
Stakeholders’ identification and prioritization
Considering the importance of responding adequately to our stakeholders’ needs, at the end of 2020, we revised the process to identify and prioritize our stakeholders. Thus, we have involved in this process representatives from all our business units to classify our stakeholders in categories and sub-categories and prioritize them. The result of this process was included in the revised Stakeholder Map that is presented to the right.
Stakeholder groups | Examples of engagement |
Suppliers & Contractors | ► Negotiations and contracts ► Supplier audits and assessments ► Supplier meetings ► Reporting related to common projects |
Employees | ► Update events with Executive Board members ► Online company platform (Intranet) ► Internal newsletter ► Internal blog ► Survey |
Local community | ► Sustainability projects ► Sponsorships and donations ► Grievance mechanisms ► Meetings for business projects ► Public Debates ► Town hall events |
Government / Central Authorities | ► Participation to meetings ► Relationship management ► Regular reporting (as required by legislation) |
Media | ► Press releases ► Conferences/Events ► Interviews ► Workshops |
Associations / Networks | ► Meetings/ Debates ► Workshops/Conferences |
Capital Market Participants | ► Regular reports and presentations ► Roadshows ► General Meetings of Shareholders ► Conferences |
Education, science and research organizations | ► Joint projects with industry partners, scientific organizations, schools and universities ► Conferences and lectures ► Sustainability projects ► Employer branding activities |
Customers | ► Advertising/ communication campaigns ► Events ► Engagement activities within the filling stations ► Newsletters |
NGOs / NPOs | ► Social projects ► Sponsorships and donations ► Stakeholder dialogue and grievance mechanisms |
Competitors & Peers | ► Industry meetings ► Contracts ► Participation in working groups |
Joint Venture & other Business Partners | ► Industry meetings ► Contracts ► Participation in working groups |