Sturdivant v. Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

ON MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION

McDonald, j.

We granted a writ of certiorari in this case to consider the important question of whether, under the State Personnel Management System, 1 a State agency must fill vacancies by reinstating former employees who were laid off from similar positions or may elect to fill the vacancies by a recruitment process that casts a wider net.

That question arose as a result of a grievance filed by certain employees who had been laid off from jobs at Spring Grove Hospital, a State psychiatric hospital, and who were not rehired in order of seniority when the hospital…