Seafarers from the Philippines and Indonesia should be paid the same wages as their Dutch counterparts, according to a Dutch foundation which has called on  shipping firms to take action or face a mass claim court case.

Currently seafarers employed by Dutch shipowners can be paid according to the cost of living in their home country, and that means sharply lower salaries.

“The Indonesian and Filipino seafarers are often paid less than half of what their colleagues earn,” the Equal Justice Equal Pay Foundation said this week.

“This amounts to many thousands of euros per year at sea, per seafarer… The foundation wants a situation where race or nationality no longer determines how people are treated or paid. Everyone should receive equal pay for the same work on board the same ship.”

The claim has been prompted by the Dutch equal rights institute which recently described the unequal pay practices as “a relic of colonial times”.

The Foundation is now sending letters to around 700 shipping companies demanding an end to what it calls the “structural unequal treatment” of Filipino and Indonesian crew members.

The organisation is also seeking compensation for “underpayment”, and has given the Dutch state and other industry bodies an ultimatum to modernise what it calls an “outdated” pay system.

If no action is taken within three weeks, the foundation says it will take the issue to court. More than 13,000 people have joined the claim.

However, the Dutch shipping organisation KVNR told news website Nu.nl on Monday that the current system is a reasonable one because living costs vary between countries.

Foreign seafarers “spend their leave in their home country,” KVNR director Annet Koster told NU.nl. “If a Filipino seafarer moves to the Netherlands, they also receive a Dutch salary.”

The KVNR said the government is currently studying the impact on the maritime sector if seafarers from different countries were paid the same.

“Our labour market is highly international,” said Koster, adding that abandoning the so-called country-of-residence principle would seriously affect the shipping industry.

According to KVNR figures, the sector currently employs 8,608 Filipinos, 5,566 Dutch nationals and 2,290 Indonesians. The foundation says Dutch crew members are more often captains or officers, meaning they already earn more than their foreign colleagues.