Utah Supreme Court justices Wednesday blocked implementation of legislation that begins to phase out the benefit starting Jan. 1. Under the new law, workers who want full insurance coverage after retirement would have to announce their last day on the job by Dec. 15. Now, that deadline has been extended indefinitely.

"If employees feel they are pressured to announce their retirement date, this at least gives them some time to decide whether they really want to," said Audry Wood, director of the Utah Public Employees Association. "I hope they think twice."

Last week, 3rd District Judge William Barrett threw out UPEA's claims that the law is unconstitutional because it breaks a contract state leaders made with workers 20

years ago. UPEA, which represents about one-fourth of the 25,000 state workers affected, has appealed to the state's top court.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers changed employees' benefits package, cutting off a policy that allows workers to trade eight hours of unused sick leave for one month of post-retirement insurance coverage. Starting next year, the new law would require employees to invest 25 percent of the value of their stored sick leave in a 401K retirement savings account. The remaining sick leave would be converted into a medical savings account based on an employee's salary at retirement.

Last May, UPEA sued to stop the law's implementation and five anonymous state workers sued for damages. Some workers could lose years of benefits worth thousands of dollars. State worker retirements have increased nearly 50 percent over last year. Through October, 486 employees had left their jobs, compared to 328 through October of last year.

"Employees were promised these benefits. Now the Legislature is reneging on promises made," said UPEA President Larry Evans after Barrett's ruling.

No hearing date has been set for the association's appeal. But the court granted UPEA's request for an injunction pending resolution of the lawsuit. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, the justices agreed to delay the law's effective date for 30 days after a ruling is issued to give workers time to make retirement arrangements.

The sponsor of the legislation, St. George Republican Rep. Dave Clark, still expects the state to prevail in the case. Lawmakers worry the financial liability of the benefits program will jeopardize the state's triple-A bond rating.

"It required us to take legislative action," Clark said. "We tried to do this in a fair, equitable and defensible manner."