322                              Laws of Maryland                      [Ch. 129

[(b)] (d) Per diem employees.—Every per diem State employee
who works in excess of forty-four hours in any week shall receive
compensation for such hours worked in excess of that time. The
amount of compensation for such excess shall be computed by divid-
ing the per diem compensation by eight and multiplying the result-
ing quotient by the number of hours worked in excess of said forty-
four hours.

Provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not
apply to the Department of Maryland State Police, Game and Inland
Fish Commission, Department of State Forests and Parks, the
Department of Tidewater Fisheries and to the Maryland Alcohol
Tax Enforcement Unit.

77. (a) Every State employee shall be entitled to observe with pay
the following legal holidays of the State of Maryland:

The first day of January, commonly called "New Year's Day"; the
12th of February, known as "Lincoln's Birthday"; the 22nd of Feb-
ruary, known as "Washington's Birthday"; the 25th day of March,
known as "Maryland Day"; "Good Friday"; the first Monday in Sep-
tember, commonly called "Labor Day"; the 30th of May, commonly
called "Decoration Day"; the 4th day of July, called "Independence
Day"; the 12th day of September, known as "Defenders' Day"; the
12th day of October, known as "Columbus Day"; the llth day of
November, known as "Veterans' Day"; the day designated as
"Thanksgiving Day"; the 25th day of December, called "Christmas
Day"; and all days of general and congressional elections throughout
the State.

(b) Any State employee who from the nature of his duties is re-
quired to work on any portion of any of said days shall be given
compensatory time for such work. If any of such days shall occur
on a Sunday, the Monday next following shall be deemed and treated
as a holiday, subject to the same provisions for compensatory time if
any such employee shall be required to work for any portion of such
Monday. In the alternative, the employee shall be paid overtime
compensation for such time worked on any of said designated days.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1956.

Approved April 4, 1956.