Rivera

Claimant, the widow of the deceased employee, petitions for review of an order denying workers’ compensation benefits on the ground that the deceased was coming to work within the meaning of the “going and coming rule” when he was killed.

Just before his death, decedent was a millwright employed by respondent Rohr-Plessey Corporation. He belonged to Local No. 1607 of the Los Angeles Millwrights Union. A labor dispute occurred and on September 3, 1975, respondent’s employees who were members of the electrical workers union walked off the job, and other members of different crafts unions also walked out in sympathy with the electrical workers strike. As a result of the strike and walkouts, decedent left work early.

*707 During that evening decedent attempted, apparently without success, to determine whether he would be permitted by his union to work the next day. The following morning union representatives were at the job site at 6 a.m. for the purpose of providing information as to the status of the dispute. They posted themselves near a catering truck which was parked at the Bandini Avenue gate to respondent’s premises.

A number of workers had congregated around the…

The critical issue here is whether at the time of the accident decedent was engaged in his employer’s business within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Act and therefore entitled to death benefits. Proper resolution of this issue requires a fuller statement of fact than that given in the majority opinion.

Decedent, a member of the millwright union, was engaged with members of other craft unions in the construction of a federal post office building in Bell. The job site, bounded on the south by Bandini Avenue and on the east by Eastern Avenue, had entrances on both streets, and as far as the record shows the job site was coterminous with the owner’s premises. On September 3 a labor dispute erupted when members of the electrical workers union walked off the job, and members of other unions, not knowing whether their unions would join the walkout, stopped working. That evening decedent learned that his union and *711 other craft unions would not join the strike but would cooperate with employers in advising employees to return to their jobs. To bring about resumption of work two actions were taken early the next morning: (1) the employer 1 posted a sign at the Bandini Avenue…