Tulsa firefighters have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Tulsa, alleging underpayment of wages under the new collective bargaining agreement.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Tulsa federal court, seeks an unspecified amount of backpay, liquidated damages and attorney fees and costs based on alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and a similar state law.

The lawsuit claims the city is not meeting its obligations under a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Tulsa and the Tulsa firefighter’s labor union that was reached in April 2026 for fiscal year 2026.

Specifically, firefighters claim the city has not enacted a retroactive pay increase or pay schedules called for in the CBA, nor changed the way it computes overtime pay for firefighters, despite it being required to do so by early May.

The lawsuit cites email correspondence from Fire Department officials to firefighters that describes technical issues with the city human resources department obtaining the data from TFD's payroll system.

In a June 18 email referenced in the lawsuit, a Fire Department administrator acknowledges the city’s most recent paycheck would not include retroactive pay differentials, new fixed salary rates or overtime when a firefighter works more than 204 hours in a pay period.

By July 17, a regular payday, the lawsuit claims Fire Department officials sent an email to firefighters stating that some may have received retroactive pay they were not entitled to receive.

“As of July 17, 2026 — 11 weeks after the CBA’s effective date and more than a year into the retroactive period — the city could not identify which bargaining unit had been paid, which had been overpaid and which remained unpaid, and it was asking firefighters to hold city funds pending further instruction,” the lawsuit states.

By Aug. 6, nearly 100 days after the effective date of the new CBA, overtime still wasn’t being credited properly, with one city official allegedly telling a firefighter that “all overtime rates are wrong for everyone.”

The lawsuit names Matt Lay, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, among plaintiffs, as well as IAFF secretary Joshua Lamb, Eric Costs, Jeffery Harper, Darren Thames, Craig Deerinwater, Coby Wright, Jayme Good, Kendal Taylor and others “similarly situated.”

The city, as well as Monroe Nichols, City Administrator Mike Miller and city of Tulsa Commissioner of Public Safety Laurel Roberts, are named as defendants.

The city of Tulsa, which typically does not comment on pending lawsuits, could not be reached regarding the lawsuit.

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