§ 33-9. Equal employment opportunity and affirmative action.

(a) Policy. Except as provided in Section 33-7(d), the County must take all personnel actions on the basis of merit and fitness without regard to political affiliation or non-merit factors, and without regard to other factors as may be provided for in chapter 27, “Human Relations and Civil Liberties,” such as sex, marital status, race, religion, national origin, age or disability. The Chief Administrative Officer must initiate, develop, and maintain an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action program necessary to ensure that all persons have an equal opportunity to enter and progress in the County's service on the basis of open competition and demonstrated ability. The County Executive may adopt regulations, under method (1), to implement this policy. Such regulations must provide that an employee whose personal religious beliefs require the abstention from work during certain periods of time may elect to engage in an alternate work schedule in order to meet those religious requirements. The regulations must require an employee who elects to work an alternate schedule to work an equal period of time to that taken off for such religious reasons.

(b) Conciliation. The chief administrative officer is authorized to engage in consultation and conciliation efforts with agencies responsible for enforcement of equal employment opportunity laws with the objective of resolving complaints and to execute binding agreements with these agencies; provided, however, that these conciliation efforts shall not be deemed to abate the procedures or requirements as recited in chapter 27. Should the complaint be determined to be a matter not properly within the jurisdiction of an equal employment opportunity enforcement agency, the complaint, as filed, shall be treated as a grievance and processed under the appropriate procedures established for grievances.

(c) Appeals by applicants. Any applicant for employment or promotion to a merit system position may appeal decisions of the chief administrative officer with respect to their application for appointment or promotion. Appeals alleging discrimination prohibited by chapter 27, "Human Relations and Civil Liberties," of this Code, may be filed in the manner prescribed therein. Appeals alleging that the decisions of the chief administrative officer were arbitrary and capricious, illegal, based on political affiliation, failure to follow announced examination and scoring procedures, or nonmerit factors, may be filed directly with the merit system protection board. Appeals filed with the merit system protection board shall be considered pursuant to procedures adopted by the board. The board may order such relief as is provided by law or regulation. (1979 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 2; 1979 L.M.C., ch. 52, § 3; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 40, § 5; 1984 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 39; , § 1.)

Editor's note-This section was cited in Andre v. Montgomery County Personnel Board, 37 Md. App. 48, 373 A.2d 1149 (1977), where it was held that there was no denial of due process which would justify the award of monetary damages to a person who, along with others, was denied a promotion when the County failed to follow established promotion procedures, as the procedures are not a guarantee of a promotion.