Organized by a local unit of the N.C. Public Service Workers Union, about a dozen workers, supporters and union organizers stood in the front lobby of the Adams Building on Dorothea Dix Hospital's campus in Raleigh. They said they wanted to see Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton or another administrator about errors in workers' paychecks.

In December, the state controller's office rolled out a new payroll system, called BEACON, which turned out to have a number of problems.

State employees have been underpaid hundreds and thousands of dollars. Some say that the state has been slow to pay them all they're owed and that the unpredictability of their paychecks has meant late mortgage, car and tuition payments.

Union president Angaza Laughinghouse said the payroll mistakes amounted to an emergency.

"I don't think they understand what we're going through right now," he said.

A spokesman for DHHS threatened to have police remove the protesters.

"You'd be better off standing in silence at BEACON headquarters," spokesman Tom Lawrence said. "We can't do anything at all.

But police hesitated when Lawrence asked police to escort the protesters from the building.

After a conversation with Lawrence, a Dorothea Dix officer offered a compromise in which four people were allowed to remain in the building while the others left.

Annie Barnes of Raleigh, a Dorothea Dix employee, said she was not worried about being arrested. "We have a right to be here and seek an appointment," she said.