44-607. Investigations and temporary findings. In case of a controversy arising between employers and workers, or between groups or crafts of workers, engaged in any of such industries, employments, public utilities, or common carriers, if it shall appear to the secretary of labor that the controversy may endanger the continuity or efficiency of service of any such industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, or affect the production or transportation of the necessaries of life affected or produced by such industries or employments, or produce industrial strife, disorder or waste, or endanger the orderly operation of such industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, and thereby endanger the public peace or threaten the public health, full power, authority and jurisdiction are hereby granted to the secretary of labor, upon the secretary's own initiative, to summon all necessary parties before the secretary and to investigate the controversy, and to make such temporary findings and orders as may be necessary to preserve the public peace and welfare and to preserve and protect the status of the parties, property and public interests involved pending such investigations, and to take evidence and to examine all necessary records, and to investigate conditions surrounding the workers, and to consider the wages paid to labor and the return accruing to capital, and the rights and welfare of the public, and all other matters affecting the conduct of such industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, and to settle and adjust all such controversies by such findings and orders as provided in this act.

It is further made the duty of the secretary of labor, upon complaint of either party to such controversy, or upon complaint of any ten citizen taxpayers of the community in which such industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers are located, or upon the complaint of the attorney general of the state of Kansas, if it shall be made to appear to the secretary of labor that the parties are unable to agree and that such controversy may endanger the continuity or efficiency of service of any of the industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, or affect the production or transportation of the necessaries of life affected or produced by such industries or employments, or produce industrial strife, disorder or waste, or endanger the orderly operation of such industries, employments, public utilities or common carriers, and thereby endanger the public peace or threaten the public health, to proceed and investigate and determine such controversy in the same manner as though upon the secretary's own initiative.

After the conclusion of any such hearing and investigation, and as expeditiously as possible, the secretary of labor shall make and serve upon all interested parties the secretary's findings, stating specifically the terms and conditions upon which the industry, employment, utility or common carrier should be thereafter conducted insofar as the matters determined by the 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.