“DMW: We support asserting equal wages for Filipino seafarers”

…The Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said it will support “any action” that would assert the right of Filipino seafarers to equal wages, reacting to a Rappler story about a Filipino-led complaint in the Netherlands seeking to strike down a years-long practice of unequal wages between Filipinos and Europeans…

Two seafarers, Filipino and Indonesian, have filed a complaint pending with the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights to end the Dutch practice of paying different wages to Filipinos, Indonesians and in a particular collective bargaining agreement, even Ukrainians…

The Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KNVR) earlier explained to Rappler that the discrepancy in wages is due to the lower cost of living in the Philippines and in Indonesia…

The Equal Justice Equal Pay Foundation, which is leading this claim and is prepared to file a class suit on behalf of others affected by the policy, points out that it is not a question of whether Filipino and Indonesian seafarers are underpaid, but whether they are paid the same wages as their European counterparts for the same job on the same ship…

The KVNR claims this is not discriminatory because it is “based on living wage in the country of residence of the seafarer,” a spokesperson told Rappler…