Employees

The Baltimore City Election Board employees who are scheduled to be tried today 3/5 on charges of false voting may lose their jobs for allegedly violating a law requiring board employees to live in the city, board President Marvin Cheatham said yesterday.Marvin Mr. Cheatham , president of the city election board, said yesterday that the board has told the employees they have until the end of 1996 to move back into the city or resign.State law prohibits election employees from living outside the jurisdiction where they work.

Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. is seeking court approval of an emergency request to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives to keep its remaining employees from leaving and imperiling the retailer's liquidation.But the incentive plan leaves nothing for employees -- including about 500 at the retailer's Joppa headquarters -- who lost their jobs last week."The workers still there should be taken care of and the ones like us should be taken care of, but obviously the company doesn't care about employees that are no longer there," said Stan Fox, the retailer's former director of store design and construction.

USF&G Corp. has laid off 37 full-time employees and more than 140 outside contractors who work in the company's information services department in Baltimore, a spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.The property, casualty and life insurer, with about $14.5 billion in assets, laid off the employees because there are fewer projects for them to work on, said Kerrie Burch-DeLuca, spokeswoman for the Baltimore-based company."Need for people [in the department] will always be a moving target," she said.

Representatives of The Baltimore Sun Company and the union representing newsroom employees at The Sun signed an agreement today that would allow the company to implement its voluntary buyout program to reduce labor costs. Employees of the Baltimore-Washington Newspaper Guild who originally were considered ineligible for the program began receiving information on the buyouts late Friday, as lawyers for both sides drew up a final agreement. Certain nonunion workers, known as "merit" employees, received similar information last week.

ANNAPOLIS -- Three labor unions that represent state government employees have thrown their support behind legislation that would save the state money and reduce its work force by offering veteran employees incentives to retire early.House Bill 984, sponsored by Majority Leader D. Bruce Poole, would give workers with at least 25 years' employment -- regardless of whether they've reached retirement age -- the opportunity to tack on credit for three additional years' service and retire with full benefits as long as they agree to leave this spring.

The owner of L. B. Griller's, a fast-food restaurant in Gle Burnie that closed in January, said all former employees will get back wages owed them, but they have to be patient."

The Annapolis City Council passed legislation last night to revitalize the industrial parks along Chinquapin Round Road and ratified a labor agreement with its blue-collar employees, guaranteeing them job security through next June.To revive the area that bottlers and other industries have abandoned, the council created a new Business Corridor Enhancement District that allows owners to redevelop the land for commercial use.City officials are hoping that the potential for commercial development and the recent completion of Aris T. Allen Boulevard to Chinquapin Round Road will entice the owners to re-invest.

Because of sluggish revenue and predicted state and federal cuts, the Ruppersberger administration will present tonight an early retirement incentive plan for a group of Baltimore County government workers.The plan, which the administration hopes would attract about 150 takers, is designed to help gird against the possibility of layoffs, by saving up to $5.8 million in a year, while costing only about $1.2 million in extra pension benefits, county officials said.County departments must make do with less money next year than they have this year, budget director Fred Homan said, and the incentives would help cut payrolls.

An Eldersburg fast-food restaurant manager and an employee were assaulted yesterday morning by two men during an armed robbery, Maryland State Police said. According to police, the men entered Wendy's in the 6400 block of Ridge Road between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and placed an order. They then displayed weapons and ordered the two employees to turn over an undisclosed amount of money, police said. After taking the money, the men forced the employees into a freezer, where they were assaulted, police said.

State workers cannot be denied promotions simply because the government lacks the money to pay them, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.Instead, government agencies must reclassify deserving employees and go through the state budget process if they need more money to pay them. Citing a state fiscal crisis and hiring freeze is no reason to freeze promotions, the judges wrote in upholding a lower court ruling.Though the decision is limited to three employees of the comptroller, it puts the state on notice that it has to follow its own regulations in dealing with its workers, said Janet M. Anderson, spokeswoman for the Maryland Classified Employees Association, which represents 13,000 workers.