OAKLAND | The city of Oakland is expected to pay $1.75 million in legal fees and will offer vacation time and money to police officers who claimed in a lawsuit that they had been underpaid for working extra hours and for the time they spent putting on their uniforms, attorneys said Thursday.

Under a tentative agreement reached this week, the city will cover the plaintiffs' legal fees and costs. More than 500 current officers will receive an average of 130 vacation hours each, and about 60 retired officers each will be paid $3,500, said Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the officers.

The agreement draws to a close a three-year legal fight that began with a 2006 federal lawsuit filed by Officer Bob Valladon, former president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, over the issue of "donning and doffing," in which officers said they weren't being paid for the time they spent putting on and taking off their uniforms.

The suit grew to include 571 current and former officers who said they hadn't been paid overtime for staying after their shifts or had been paid at the wrong rate.

City officials denied any wrongdoing. In court documents earlier this year, Arthur Hartinger, an attorney for the city, wrote, "The officers knowingly violated OPD policy by not submitting overtime slips and now, in the anonymity of a group lawsuit, they seek millions of dollars for work that they allegedly performed and which in most cases they cannot document."

The City Council voted 6-2 in closed session Tuesday to approve the settlement. The council is expected to formally ratify the deal in January.

Lucia said the city was wise to settle, as it could have been liable for as much as $20 million if a jury had ruled in the officers' favor.

Lucia and City Attorney John Russo said both sides had compromised. Russo credited new leadership at the police union with helping to forge the settlement.