158                              Laws of Maryland                         Ch. 98

[Commissioner] Secretary or by some person or board appointed by
the [Commissioner] Secretary to hear, investigate and determine
the same.

The finding and decision of the [Commissioner] Secretary or of
such person or board when approved by the [Commissioner] Secre-
tary shall be final, and shall be certified to the appointing authority
and shall be forthwith enforced by such authority.

The [Commissioner] Secretary shall, by rule, prescribe what
may constitute cause for removal, but no removal shall be allowed
because of the religious or political opinions or affiliations of any
employee. The provisions of this section shall apply to the demotion
of an employee as described in Section 31 of this article.

34.

The [Commissioner] Secretary of Personnel shall prescribe a form
for reports by the appointing authority concerning any employee
who has been separated from service or who has been transferred to
some other State agency, voluntarily or involuntarily, because of
alleged unsatisfactory work or conduct. In no case shall such report
become part of such employee's official or permanent State employ-
ment record until after the [Commissioner] Secretary has given
the employee an opportunity to answer it in writing. When and if
such an answer is filed, it shall become part of the official and per-
manent record of the employee, and the [Commissioner] Secretary
shall make use thereof in ruling upon such employee's suitability for
future employment in State service or elsewhere. If such employee
has at any time satisfactorily completed a probationary period, he
may waive the opportunity to file a written answer and elect to be
heard in his own defense; and in the event of such election, the
[Commissioner] Secretary shall follow the same procedure as that
provided in cases pertaining to removal and shall find whether none,
all, or part of the unsatisfactory report shall remain on such em-
ployee's official State employment record to determine suitability
for future employment.

35.

An employee in a position that is to be abolished, discontinued, or
vacated, because of change in departmental organization, or through
stoppage or lack of work, shall be laid off and his name placed, in the
order provided in the rules of the [Commissioner] Secretary of
Personnel, on the eligible list for the class of the position from which
he was laid off.

36.

The appointing authority may for disciplinary purposes suspend
an employee. Every such suspension shall be without pay; pro-
vided, however, that any employee who is suspended by the appoint-
ing authority may appeal his suspension to the [Commissioner]
Secretary of Personnel, and in case of the [Commissioner's] Sec-
retary's disapproval he shall have power to restore pay to the sus-
pended employee. With respect to his employees the [Commis-
sioner] Secretary shall be deemed the appointing authority and the
Governor shall act in the place and stead of the [Commissioner]
Secretary for the purpose of this section.