More than a month after voting to take their case to court, the Utah Public Employees Association filed suit against the state last week over controversial legislation limiting a costly retirement benefit.

The suit seeks the continuation of the state's "Unused Sick Leave Retirement Option" program that will be phased out beginning next year as a result of a bill passed by the 2005 Legislature.

The association's attorney, Ben Hathaway, said he is willing to wait until the end of August before he files a motion for an injunction to stop the new law from taking effect at the beginning of next year.

According to the lawsuit, "state employees are notoriously underpaid" and have been compensated with "a comparatively generous benefits package" including the program enacted in the early 1980s.

Under the complicated program, retired state workers continue to receive health insurance for up to five years or until they turn 65. They then can purchase medical insurance with unused sick leave, at a rate of one month of coverage for every eight hours of unused time.

HB213, however, would phase out the continued health insurance coverage for all state retirees by 2011 as well as limit how accumulated sick leave can be used to cover health care costs.

The lawsuit cites five unidentified state employees who, along with others, worked for the government "in reliance upon the continuation of the program, forgoing better salaries they could have readily obtained in private or local government employment."

One state employee, for example, is 62 years old and has worked for the state for more than 30 years. If the employee retires after the bill takes effect, he or she would lose more than five years of health insurance coverage.