Firefighters in Taiwan's Changhua County are finally getting overtime money they were owed, a win for frontline staff after years of unpaid hours.

• Changhua's fire department will pay out about NT$50 million in November to cover overtime built up between early 2023 and mid-2024.
• Firefighters can only claim up to NT$19,000 a month in overtime pay, and they cannot use up the leave they are owed instead.
• Democratic Progressive Party councillors say the county should have budgeted the money a year ago, since a 2023 rule change requires payment once the two-year window to take leave runs out.
• Staffing is the deeper problem: the county has 745 firefighters against 885 budgeted slots, and cannot find enough recruits.
• In the past, unpaid overtime was often written off with commendations instead of cash.

Outlook: The back pay lands in November, but with hundreds of posts still unfilled, the overtime problem is likely to keep building.