Taiwan's state-owned power company lost a court case over shorting an employee's holiday overtime pay — a win for workers, and a warning to other state firms.

• Taipower left out a supervisor allowance and a perfect-attendance bonus when it calculated holiday overtime for a worker at its Shimen power plant.
• Taoyuan's city government fined the company NT$20,000 for breaking labor law; Taipower sued to overturn the fine and lost.
• Taipower argued the two payments were rewards, not wages, and that state-enterprise pay rules forced its hand.
• The court said both are regular pay for work done, and that labor law sets the floor no state-enterprise rule can go below.
• Judges pointed out Taipower has been fined repeatedly for the same practice across different cities and still has not fixed it.

Outlook: The ruling is final, so Taipower faces pressure to rewrite how it calculates overtime or keep collecting fines.