Human Rights

In 2021, we deepened the work of building and implementing an agenda of respect for human rights integrated into our business.

In June, we carried out the first review of the Human Rights Guidelines, giving greater emphasis to our commitment to respecting human rights in the relationship with the chain of suppliers and partners. The document guides our work on respect for human rights in all our activities and regions where we operate and throughout the life cycle of our projects and operations.

In addition to the Human Rights Directive, our policies regarding corporate Social Responsibility,, Health, Safety, and the Environment, and Human Resources also reinforce our commitment to human rights. Our Code of Ethical Conduct, revised in August 2020, has a specific section on our duties and those of our employees with human rights.

While the Petrobras Ethical Conduct Guide for Suppliers, published in 2020, was the first document produced exclusively with our suppliers in mind, with guidelines on ethical values and behavior.

Our commitment to human rights is expressed in our values of respect for life, people, and the environment and in our Strategic Plan. In the 2022-26 Strategic Plan, approved in November 2021, we established specific commitments in human rights.

- 100% employee training on human rights issues

- 100% of operations with human rights due diligence

- Promoting diversity by providing an inclusive work environment

In 2021, we started the Human Rights (DH) Training Plan, which aims at consolidating training and awareness-raising initiatives on this topic, ensuring the breadth and reach of the company's actions, in addition to promoting a culture of respect for human rights, in alignment with our guidelines for this topic. In 2021, we had 3,384 employees with 6,768 hours of training related to human rights, which represents 8.74% of the workforce.

We also started the construction of a Basic Distance Learning in human rights, with delivery perspective in the first half of 2022. The Distance Learning course brings topics such as “Human Rights Due Diligence”, “Management of People and Human Rights” and “Communities and Human Rights”, among others. Our goal is that by 2025, 100% of our employees will have been trained in Human Rights Basic Distance Learning.

In order to better understand the diversity of our workforce, we carried out a campaign on our internal channels with the aim of encouraging employees to self-declare information about their race/color in our records, and we sought to involve the highest leaders in the areas that make up the Human Rights Commission to encourage their teams to fill in this information in the employee register. As a result, in December 2021, the number of employees who filled in this information in the company's records rose to 87%.

In January 2021, the Petrobras Human Rights Commission was created, responsible for managing the implementation and monitoring the agenda of respect for human rights, in order to ensure the integration of this agenda in a broad and transversal way in our business. The commission is made up of 20 business areas, totaling 40 members, and meets monthly to monitor the implementation of the Human Rights Plan and other guidelines related to the subject.

 

 

Internal public and human rights

Keeping our focus on the prevention of conflicts in the corporate environment, a lecture on discrimination, violence and harassment aimed at leaders was customized and held by the Ombudsman General.  A total of 44 lectures were given to several of our units and were attended by 2,947 leaders.

In 2021, we continued with the Gender Equity plan, whose main action was the implementation of the Corporate Mentoring Program for Female Leadership, which included awareness-raising workshops on the topic for female mentors, mentees, and mentees’ managers, in addition to other meetings. As a direct result of the program's success, some units deployed the initiative and developed their own in-house programs. An indirect consequence of the program was the increase in the engagement of female leaders in the discussions of career committees and the appointment of successors to key positions.

On September 21, 2021, we launched the Corporate Accessibility Improvement Plan, which aims to promote, in a coordinated manner, the diagnosis, proposition and implementation of actions to improve accessibility in the company, adapting to legal requirements and improving the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace, in the search for equality of conditions with other people. 

The driving force of the plan is the search for the construction of an increasingly inclusive work environment that, in addition to meet legal accessibility requirements, respects diversity and provides increasingly dignified working conditions.

This is a milestone for the company, with the potential to positively impact our culture and organizational climate and contribute to productivity. A bold initiative, which may even inspire other companies in the country.

Our external and independent reporting channel is capable of handling complaints about violence at work, including topics such as moral and sexual harassment and discrimination. During 2021, 13 complaints were closed that presented the sufficient and necessary elements for the investigation process by the Ombudsman General's Office. Eight of these processes started in 2020. After the investigation ended, 9 complaints were confirmed (6 about the same person) and 4 were not confirmed. In the accountability stage, 3 suspensions were determined: one for discrimination and two for moral harassment. For a confirmation of moral harassment, the Integrity Committee understood that the employee was not punishable. At the end of 2021, there were 5 complaints for moral harassment and 2 for discrimination being investigated by the Ombudsman General.

 

Prevention of human rights violations in communities in our area of operation

We have adopted standards and processes that guide our performance in managing risks and socio-economic impacts in our operations, investment projects, decommissioning and divestments. These processes seek to prevent the violation of human rights and to strengthen the bonds of trust with the communities present in our coverage area.

Regarding the evaluation of capital investment projects, in 2021, 28 projects were submitted to social responsibility and HSE evaluation, which include human rights issues, during the phase change. This total represents 85% of the projects with investments above 100 million dollars evaluated for phase transition in 2021.

In 2021, our Ombudsman staff received 130 complaints from local communities. Of this total, 27 were accusations (8 confirmed, 15 unconfirmed, 2 closed and 2 that are still being processed), 53 were complaints (38 completed, 14 closed and 1 that is still being processed), 45 were requests (27 completed, 17 closed and 1 that is still ongoing), in addition to 4 completed suggestions and a compliment.

The most relevant issues reported in the accusations from local communities were: Invasion or irregular occupation of a Petrobras area by the community, impact on the health of the community around the facilities, environmental impacts and irregularities in the conduct of projects maintained by us. The other manifestations deal with land issues, pipelines, installations, and requests for donations.

We do not have oil and gas reserves in conflict areas, as defined by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UFDP). However, in 2021, we recorded eleven conflicts with local communities that we classify as significant, with the possibility of impacting operations, people, and the environment, requiring immediate attention and treatment. These conflicts were related to: blockades of roads by the communities, mobilization of communities for jobs, demonstration questioning the decommissioning of the platform and invasions of the operational area.

 

Human rights in the supply chain and partners

Regarding our partners, in 2020, based on an internal working group, guidelines were prepared to manage HSE and Social Responsibility in partnerships in the Joint Ventures (JV) model, including human rights issues to be considered by us in the Joint Operation Agreements (JOA) negotiations. The purpose of these guidelines is to establish a governance model aligned with our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and Social Responsibility (RS) Policy and to standardize the HSE and Social Responsibility Management Plans (HSE Plan) and HSE and Social Responsibility Reports (HSE Report), for when we are operators and when we evaluate the management plans of partner operators in the business.

As set out in our Ethical Conduct Guide for Suppliers, we are committed to the highest standards of integrity, social and environmental responsibility, and ethical conduct. Our suppliers must provide safe working conditions, treat their workers with dignity and respect, act with integrity and ethics, and be in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Based on this guide and on the standards with guidelines for the inspection of contracts for goods and services, we verify compliance with the execution of contractual clauses regarding aspects related to safety, the environment and health, as well as social responsibility. Also, we monitor supplier compliance through the performance management system, as reinforced in our Supplier Quality Guide (https://canalfornecedor.petrobras.com.br).

Before signing a contract with us, every supplier must complete and sign the Declaration of Compliance with the Code of Ethical Conduct, the Ethical Conduct Guide for Suppliers, the Quality Guide for Suppliers, and the Social Responsibility Policy.

 

Registration and monitoring of suppliers

We have developed evaluation mechanisms that aim to ensure that suppliers have suitable technical, economic-financial, legal and HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) practices, in addition to having an ethical profile in their relationship with society and the environment.

As it is a prior assessment of the company's ability to provide us with goods and services, although not mandatory for participation in public bids, the register minimizes the risk of disqualification of bidders, in addition to providing more agility to the contracting processes and promoting high performance in contract execution.

In 2021, we evaluated 3,937 companies on technical grounds; 6,526 companies on economic and financial grounds; 10,013 companies regarding legal requirements; 8,694 companies regarding their Integrity Risk Level and 321 companies regarding HSE requirements.

In order to comply with articles 83 and 84 of Law 13.303/16, the need to open a Commission for the Analysis and Application of Sanctions (CAASE) is analyzed, in cases of contractual non-compliance, such as: non-conformities in labor, pension or HSE (with or without fatal accident), contract abandonment, unmotivated withdrawal from the bidding process, non-compliance with the Ethical Conduct Guide for Suppliers, among other types of conduct considered serious.

Throughout 2021, we conducted 69 sanctioning processes through CAASE, with 118 sanctions in force for suppliers. Also during this period, 54 companies were included in the list of companies prevented from contracting, due to the application of administrative sanctions. No company entered the list of companies prevented from contracting due to environmental issues in 2021. In terms of negative impacts on labor practices, six companies were sanctioned in 2021 for events considered to be of high severity.

 

Practices for the prevention of slave and child labor

With the purpose of curbing any degrading work practice in our supply chain, our standard contractual draft for services has a clause demanding guarantee of compliance with the labor precepts provided for in the Brazilian legislation in force. Failure to comply with this clause gives us the right to terminate the contract with the supplier. In addition, there is also a clause on the prohibition of using child labor or slave-like labor in all activities related to the execution of the contract. This clause requires the supplier to extend this prohibition to its input suppliers and/or service providers, under penalty of a fine or contract termination, without prejudice to the adoption of other appropriate measures. In 2021, agreements were signed by 9,751 suppliers, all of which contained clauses to abstain from child labor and slave-like labor.