CORRECTION

A story in the City & State section Tuesday incorrectly reported that attorney Steven Edelstein had been paid $22,000 for his work with Raleigh sanitation workers. That is the amount he will be paid when the settlement is final.

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RALEIGH -- Four months after the city agreed to pay between $50 and $325 to sanitation workers who had sued over unpaid overtime, the employees haven't seen a cent.

But their lawyer, Steven Edelstein, has received $22,000 from the city -- compensation for his work.

"The wheels of justice turn slowly," he said.

The settlement with the workers who collect Raleigh's trash and recycling is still winding its way through the courts. Each of the 46 men who joined the lawsuit must first sign an affidavit saying that the payment is fair and equitable and then must sign a release. Many of them call the settlement "chicken feed."

Edelstein could not guess when they might get paid and said a four-month wait is "not unusual at all" after such a settlement.

It is standard for the defendant -- Raleigh, in this case -- to pay attorneys' fees in cases involving the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

But for workers, the wait adds to the sting they feel nearly 18 months after they walked off the job protesting 14-hour days, skeleton crews and broken promises of overtime.

"Everybody done got paid but us," said Felix Butler, a sanitation worker since 2003 who earns $24,971 a year.

On two straight days in September 2006, more than 50 sanitation workers protested in the city's Solid Waste Services yard on Peace Street.

They demanded more workers and an end to mandatory overtime, both of which they got. The department also switched to an electronic time-keeping system and kept overtime hours to a minimum. The city solid waste services director, Gerald Latta, retired -- against his will, he said.

After the walkout, much of the department's staff joined with UE-150 union, though state law kept them from collective bargaining. City Manager Russell Allen refused to meet with union groups as long as non-city employees were present.

But debate over unpaid overtime dragged on.

Workers initially sought far more than $325 each, arguing that shifts that regularly lasted past dark amounted to thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.

When the city issued 200 workers $45,000 in checks in March, seeking to settle the score, some workers refused to cash them. Butler, for example, was to be paid $245.

Fifty workers filed a federal lawsuit in July, though four voluntarily dropped their claims.

After several rounds of mediation, the city and workers agreed to a sliding scale that rewarded workers depending on the number of hours worked between April 2005 and September 2006 -- the date of the twin walkouts.

Those with the most hours logged got $325 and those with the fewest were to be paid $50.

Edelstein, the workers' lawyer, called the settlement a great step forward, though workers still grumbled that the money was a pittance.

Now they wonder when they will see that small paycheck boost.

Part of the wait comes from the city's taking several weeks to provide data, Edelstein said, but not that much. It just takes time.

Union leader and sanitation worker Jerry Ledbetter said he will know more after he meets with union members Wednesday.

"It's taking too long," he said. "But we got ripped off."