City Councilors To Vote On Settling Lawsuit Filed Against City Of Tulsa By 13 Firefighters Over Unpaid Overtime

City Councilors are scheduled to vote on Wednesday on settling a lawsuit filed against the City of Tulsa by 13 firefighters.

The firefighters sued the city, the mayor and the city's chief operations officer over unpaid overtime.

The city agreed to settle the lawsuit for $1,060,000. Now it's up to the city council to decide whether to approve the amount.

The lawsuit claims firefighters work regularly scheduled overtime as part of their shift work, but that overtime stopped being paid in April 2021. It also says firefighters who picked up extra overtime shifts when the department was short-staffed were not being paid as quickly as required.

The city blamed the problem on the ransomware attack back in 2021. The city started paying overtime again in 2022.

Now the city has agreed to settle, and the money will cover overtime pay, damages, and attorney fees, but the final terms of the settlement are still being figured out.

Tulsa Firefighter Union President, Matt Lay, says he hopes Wednesday is about making sure all parties are informed and that everyone has done their due diligence.

"I think all parties are ready to see this brought to a conclusion and part of that is a working group to ensure these kinds of issues are handled without litigation moving forward," said Lay.

If the city council approves the settlement, the money would come from the sinking fund, a fund the city uses to pay out lawsuits, judgments and claims.