A hold on state benefits law?

Whether to stop a controversial law from taking effect that would cut the sick-leave benefits for state employees now rests in the hands of a district judge. The law is to take effect Jan. 1, if the judge does not intervene.

Attorneys for the state and the Utah Public Employees' Association offered closing arguments Friday after five days of testimony presented over a two-week period.

At issue is the Legislature's passing of HB213, which would phase out the ability of more than 25,000 state employees to exchange eight hours of sick leave for one month's worth of medical coverage after retirement.

UPEA is seeking an injunction to prevent the law from taking effect. They asked the court to review the law to see if it denies benefits to employees who banked up thousands of hours of sick leave with the hope of buying post-retirement medical coverage.

UPEA attorney Ben Hathaway argued that HB213 also forces employees to cash out 25 percent of their accrued sick leave and put it in their 401K. This, he said, also deprives retirees of further medical coverage. The current state policy has been in effect for three decades.

Hathaway also accused legislators of passing the bill without doing any actual fiscal studies of what impact the policy change will have on employees.

"This was a fiscal enactment reached without any fiscal analysis," he said.

But state officials argued that with the price of health care doubling over the past few years, the state cannot sustain the policy of allowing employees to trade in eight hours for one month's coverage.

Deputy attorney general Clark Waddoups said there is no way to know how many employees would be affected by the change.

He said the Legislature has a right to make changes to state policy and UPEA is using the courts to overturn a legislative decision they didn't like.

Although UPEA represents some 5,000 full-time state employees, Judge William Barrett took issue with the association claiming to represent the interests of the state's 25,000-employee base. Just short of marching every state employee in to testify, Barrett said, it is hard to gauge the range of feelings on the law.

Barrett said he plans to issue a ruling after the Thanksgiving holiday but before Dec. 16, the cut-off date by which state employees must declare their retirement before the end of 2005.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com