---
type: "Bill"
title: "Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)"
description: "Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 581"
citation: "Maryland HB 581 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["D.E. Davis"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 38
vote_count: 11
first_action: "2021-01-20"
last_action: "2021-05-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/49aa4ae9-1829-4d5c-a649-b905cb5c23be"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0581?ys=2021RS&search=True"
source_hash: "11955f7383da050d009d0c09f94b671e435a212f164b640c75313e9b13d4dfa6"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 581 (2021) — Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Chapter - Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/Chapters_noln/CH_736_hb0581t.pdf)
2. **First - Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/bills/hb/hb0581f.pdf)
3. **Third - Labor and Employment - Employment Standards During an Emergency (Maryland Essential Workers' Protection Act)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/bills/hb/hb0581t.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **31–15** (pass) · upper
- FLA Del. Buckel /723327/1 — **45–88** (fail) · lower
- On third reading — **32–14** (pass) · upper
- FLA Del. Chisholm /653028/1 — **45–89** (fail) · lower
- On Third Reading (Emerg) — **93–39** (pass) · lower
- Floor Amendment Hershey /713423/1 — **17–29** (fail) · upper
- FLA Del. Kipke /863821/1 — **43–92** (fail) · lower
- FLA Del. Chisholm /873429/1 — **45–90** (fail) · lower
- Floor Amendment Hershey /453020/1 — **20–25** (fail) · upper
- Motion to Special Order Previous Question — **104–31** (pass) · lower
- Motion to Special Order — **43–94** (fail) · lower

## Sponsors

- D.E. Davis — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-20** First Reading Economic Matters and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-22** Hearing 2/05 at 11:00 a.m. (Economic Matters)
- **2021-04-01** Favorable with Amendments Report by Economic Matters `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-01** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-01** Motion Special Order until 04/02 (Delegate Wilson) Adopted
- **2021-04-02** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-02** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-02** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-02** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-02** Motion Special Order until 4/5 (Delegate Parrott)
- **2021-04-02** Motion Vote Previous Question (Delegate D.E. Davis) Adopted
- **2021-04-02** Motion Special Order until 04/05 (Delegate Parrott) Rejected
- **2021-04-02** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2021-04-02** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2021-04-05** Referred Rules `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-08** Rereferred to Finance
- **2021-04-08** Hearing 4/09 at 9:30 a.m.
- **2021-04-09** Favorable with Amendments Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-09** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-09** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2021-04-10** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-10** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-10** Floor Amendment {
- **2021-04-10** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2021-04-12** House Refuses Concur Senate Amendments
- **2021-04-12** House Requests Senate Recede
- **2021-04-12** House Conference Committee Appointed (Delegates Wilson, D.E. Davis and Dumais)
- **2021-04-12** House Refuses Concur Senate Amendments
- **2021-04-12** House Requests Senate Recede
- **2021-04-12** House Conference Committee Appointed (Delegates Wilson, D.E. Davis and Dumais)
- **2021-04-12** Motion Reconsider Third Reading (Senator Kelley) Adopted
- **2021-04-12** Motion Reconsider Amendments (Senator Kelley) Adopted
- **2021-04-12** Motion Withdraw Amendments (Senator Kelley) Adopted
- **2021-04-12** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2021-04-12** Senate Recede
- **2021-04-12** Senate Recede
- **2021-04-12** Returned Passed
- **2021-05-30** Enacted under Article II, Section 17(c) of the Maryland Constitution - Chapter 736 `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/49aa4ae9-1829-4d5c-a649-b905cb5c23be`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).