Authorities should formulate disciplinary measures to punish, rather than remind employers who failed to compensate laborers working during holidays, says a commentary published by the Beijing News Thursday.

The commentary, published just prior to the country's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Holiday, followed other opinion pieces and commentaries from both state media and local newspapers calling for increased attention to the country's laborer's rights to overtime payments.

In China, laborer's payrolls are usually composed of basic pay and bonus. The amount of daily overtime payments during national holidays often equals three work days' basic payments.

However, most employees dare not ask for holiday overtime payment for fear of losing their jobs, while some employers falsify documents, such as payroll records, which can hide excessive overtime.

According to a survey conducted last May by Zhaopin.com, one of China's largest human resources companies, only 48.3 percent of laborers were paid in accordance with holiday payment standards during the country's May Day holiday.

To protect laborers' rights, China declared Tuesday that courts would favor worker claims for overtime payments in lawsuits where neither the employee nor the employer could provide proof of time worked.

A judicial explanation of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said lawsuits brought by workers against employers for overtime payments had increased significantly since the implementation of the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes on May 1, 2008.

Courts around the country saw more than 295,500 lawsuits filed regarding labor disputes in 2008, up 95.3 percent from the previous year, according to the SPC.