A group of Honolulu paramedics and emergency medical technicians filed a legal complaint Wednesday accusing the city of failing to pay them overtime earned during the past six years.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of 71 paramedics and EMTs, who allege the city has “repeatedly, knowingly and wilfully” denied them overtime pay.

Because of the statute of limitations, the plaintiffs can seek overtime pay dating back only three years.

Paramedic Sonya Adams, the lead plaintiff in the complaint, said fellow paramedics and EMTs regularly work overtime because of staff shortages.

“We all work OT whether we want to or not,” she said. “And we don’t even get paid for it.”

Adams, who has worked as an EMS supervisor for the past five years and has been with the department for 13 years, said errors concerning unpaid overtime pay date back to 2006, when the department hired a new payroll clerk.

In May 2006, Adams said, she first noticed she wasn’t getting paid OT owed to her. It was only when she brought it to the department’s attention that she received the money. Adams said the department told her the nonpayment was caused by human error.

But the errors continued, she said. She said she approached the department multiple times for unpaid overtime she accrued. She has since been paid more than $7,000 in overtime.

Adams has also approached the department of behalf of other paramedics and EMTs who noticed they were not being paid for overtime hours. Most of them are still awaiting back overtime pay.

“It’s just been a constant battle,” she said.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Carl Varady said they filed the complaint because they want the errors to stop and for the department to pay employees what they are owed in a timely manner as required under federal law.

“It’s not legal and it’s not fair,” Varady said.

The number of employees who were not paid for overtime is believed to be more than the 71 plaintiffs named in the complaint. The city employs about 200 paramedics and EMTs.

Adams said she is also concerned for employees who retired from the department in the past three years because their earnings were lower than they should be and pensions based on pay are going to be lower as a result, she said.

In an email statement, Dr. Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, said the department had not been served with the complaint and would have no comment at this time.

City spokesman Jim Fulton also said city officials could not comment.