The company also moved to cancel all retiree health reimbursement accounts for Medicare-eligible salaried retirees and terminate the Medicare Part B special benefit for current and future salaried retirees and their surviving spouses.

For workers hired after 1999, Delphi doesn't pay retiree health benefits, but pays 1 percent of an employee's base pay into a retirement savings plan. That contribution would be cancelled if the court granted permission.

Retirees would be allowed to keep coverage if they paid for it, Delphi said.

Delphi, which has been under bankruptcy protection since 2005, has been struggling to emerge in recent months in the face of a tight credit. Delphi had planned to continue the programs until it ran into difficulty raising enough funds to emerge from bankruptcy. The company noted that auto sales have declined dramatically. Delphi's 'reasonable business judgment no longer permits them to maintain discretionary benefit programs ... that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars,' the company said in a court filing. 'Delphi has been working and continues to work closely with its advisors and stakeholders to reevaluate its business plan and implement cash-conservation measures wherever it can.'

A Feb. 24 hearing on the retiree health benefits and insurance request has been set in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain.