ALBANY -- New York's second-largest public-employees union was granted a temporary restraining order Friday on the state's mandate that certain health care workers get vaccines for seasonal and H1N1 influenza by Nov. 30 or potentially lose their jobs.

That puts the emergency regulation on hold while the lawsuit filed by the Public Employees Federation is being litigated. New York is the only state that has mandated the vaccine.

"PEF has encouraged our members to take the H1N1 vaccine, but at the same time, it should not be your job versus the H1N1 vaccination," said Patricia Baker, a vice president of the 59,000-member union.

PEF, which has about 5,000 members who fall under the mandate, filed the case Friday in state Supreme Court in Albany. Justice Thomas McNamara granted the restraining order and set an Oct. 30 court date.

Also Friday, the state's largest union filed a lawsuit on behalf of three members who work at the Stony Brook University Medical Center. New York State United Teachers, which has 600,000 members, seeks to overturn the vaccine mandate on behalf of the workers -- an X-ray technician, physical therapist and respiratory therapist.

"This suit does not weigh in on the safety of the H1N1 vaccination or the potential seriousness of an H1N1 outbreak," union President Richard Iannuzzi said in a statement. "It does, however, seek to protect the rights of workers to make informed choices as individuals in deciding whether or not to be vaccinated."

A spokeswoman for the state Health Department said officials are confident the state will prevail in the case. Dr. Richard Daines, state health commissioner, and the state Hospital Review and Planning Council, which voted to require the vaccines, acted within their legal authority, said Claire Pospisil, the spokeswoman.

"The TRO is a temporary order. In two weeks, the department is scheduled to be in court, where we will vigorously defend this lawsuit on its merits. We are confident that the regulation will be upheld," she said.

The agency cited a 1990 ruling that shot down a challenge to regulations mandating rubella vaccinations and annual tuberculosis testing for health care workers.

"The Legislature of this State has charged the Commissioner of Health with the responsibility of making hospitals safe places to get well," the decision said. "These regulations are tailored to accomplish that end."

But William Seamon, PEF's general counsel, claimed the commissioner "usurped the power of the Legislature" with the mandate.

"Public policy is determined by the state Legislature, not an unelected administrator," he said. "We think that there's a time and a place for mandatory vaccinations. This is not the time or the place."

NYSUT's lawsuit argues that the mandate, in addition to usurping the Legislature's powers, violates state rule-making procedures "by declaring an emergency where none exists" and violates the workers' constitutional rights.

Until this year, seasonal flu shots were strongly urged but voluntary. After the H1N1 flu hit New York in the spring, state officials opted to mandate vaccines for both seasonal and H1N1 flu. The rule applies to health-care workers in hospitals and clinics and those who work for home-care programs.

It's up to the health-care institutions where people work to decide what actions to take if employees don't comply.

PEF and NYSUT are the first professional groups in the state to sue over the mandate.

Suzanne Field, a LaGrange, Dutchess County, nurse filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on the issue. Albany attorney Terence Kindlon said he plans to file a lawsuit Monday on behalf of four local nurses who are opposed to the shots.