In a first in the health care reform context, and in opposition to the Fourth Circuit’s holding in the Wal-Mart Bill case of RILA v. Felder, the Ninth Circuit has ruled in Golden Gate Rest. Ass’n v. San Francisco, No. 07-17372 (9th Cir. 9/30/08), that the San Francisco health care law is not preempted by ERISA.

From the BNA Daily Labor Report this morning:

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act does not preempt a San Francisco ordinance that requires medium and large employers in the city to make minimum health care expenditures on behalf of covered employees, either by paying into their own employee benefits plans or into a fund maintained and administered by the city, the Ninth Circuit holds . . . .

Writing for the court, Judge Fletcher says ERISA preemption is limited in areas that historically are matters of local concern, that employers subject to the city ordinance law lacked the sort of discretion that would render the program an ERISA plan, and that the ordinance does not “relate to” a benefit plan covered by ERISA.

The case has been watched closely by employer representatives and employee groups, which predicted the decision could have wide-ranging implications for the future of health care funding. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a statement calls the ruling ”a huge victory for this city and the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.” Business groups, however, call the decision “devastating” for small business owners.

There is an on-line book club discussion at PrawfsBlawg, organized by Matt Bodie (Saint Louis), about Steve Greenhouse’s new book: The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.  Yesterday, Steve himself responded to the comments made by the other participants in the book club. Here’s a taste:

For starters, I want to say that when I researched and wrote my book, The Big Squeeze, I saw that workers were suffering not just from one squeeze, but from several squeezes. There is of course an economic/financial squeeze with wages stagnating and health and pension benefits getting worse. Then there is a time squeeze with Americans working 1,804 hours a year on average — 135 hours or nearly three-and-a-half fulltime weeks more than the typical British worker, 240 hours or six fulltime weeks more than the typical French worker and nine fulltime weeks more than the typical German worker.  (Those of you who answer work emails at 11 p.m. know what I’m talking about.) The United States is the only industrial nation without laws guaranteeing workers paid vacation, paid sick day and paid maternity leave. (In the 27 countries of the European Union, workers are guaranteed at least four weeks vacation.)