44-607. Investigations and temporary findings.
44-607
44-607. Investigations and temporaryfindings.In case of a controversy arising between employers and workers, orbetween groups or crafts of workers, engaged in any of suchindustries,employments, public utilities, or common carriers, if it shall appear tothe secretary of labor thatthe controversy mayendanger thecontinuityor efficiency of service of any such industries,employments, publicutilities or common carriers, or affect the production or transportation ofthe necessaries of life affected or produced by suchindustries oremployments, or produce industrial strife, disorder or waste, or endangerthe orderly operation of such industries, employments, public utilities orcommon carriers, and thereby endanger the public peace or threaten thepublic health, full power, authority and jurisdiction are hereby granted tothe secretary of labor, uponthe secretary's own initiative, to summonall necessaryparties before the secretary and to investigatethecontroversy, and to make suchtemporary findings and orders as may be necessary to preserve the publicpeace and welfare and to preserve and protect the status of the parties,property and public interests involved pending suchinvestigations, and totake evidence and to examine all necessary records, and to investigateconditions surrounding the workers, and to consider the wages paid to laborand the return accruing to capital, and the rights and welfare of thepublic, and all other matters affecting the conduct of suchindustries,employments, public utilities or common carriers, and to settle and adjustall such controversies by such findings and orders as provided in this act.
It is further made the duty of the secretary oflabor, upon complaintof either party to such controversy, or upon complaint of any ten citizentaxpayers of the community in which such industries, employments, publicutilities or common carriers are located, or upon the complaint of theattorney general of the state of Kansas, if it shall be made to appear tothe secretary of labor that the parties areunable to agree and that suchcontroversy may endanger the continuity or efficiency of service of any ofthe industries, employments, public utilities or commoncarriers, oraffect the production or transportation of the necessaries of life affectedor produced by such industries or employments, or produceindustrialstrife, disorder or waste, or endanger the orderly operation of suchindustries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, and therebyendanger the public peace or threaten the public health, to proceed andinvestigate and determine such controversy in the samemanner as thoughupon the secretary's own initiative.
After the conclusion of any such hearing and investigation, and asexpeditiously as possible, the secretary of laborshall make and serve upon all interested parties thesecretary's findings, stating specifically the termsand conditions upon which the industry, employment, utilityor commoncarrier should be thereafter conducted insofar as the matters determined bythe secretary of labor are concerned.
History: L. 1920, ch. 29, § 7; R.S. 1923, 44-607;L. 1976, ch. 370, § 26;L. 2004, ch. 179, § 25; July 1.