In the United States, it is a generally recognized rule in workers' compensation cases that injuries incurred by an employee while going to or returning from his regular place of work are not compensable. The coming and going rule is grounded in recognition that injuries suffered while going to or coming from work are essentially similar to other injuries suffered off duty away from the employer's premises and, like those other injuries, are usually not work related. The theory behind the rule is that, ordinarily, the relationship of employer and employee is suspended from the time the employee leaves work to go home until he or she resumes work. In other words, the employment relationship does not begin until the employee enters the employer's premises. However, the general rule is subject to certain well-recognized exceptions that depend upon the nature, circumstances, and conditions of the particular employment, and the cause of the injury.
One of the exceptions to the going and coming rule applies if an employee is on a special mission or has been asked to perform a special errand or special task for his or her employer. This exception applies if the injury is incurred while the employee is going to or returning from the regular place of work to perform a special task outside regular hours at the request of the employer and for the employer's benefit. The underlying rationale of the special task exception recognizes that special missions present risks far in excess of those encountered in regular employment routine.
Also, special hazard or risk exception applies if the employment creates a special risk, and the employee will be entitled to compensation for injuries sustained in the scope of that risk. The special risk exception is sometimes stated as being that an injury is compensable if, before entry on the premises, an employee suffers injury from a special risk that is causally related to employment. The special risk exception applies if, but for the employment, the employee would not have been at the location where the injury occurred, and if the risk is distinctive in nature or quantitatively greater than risks common to the public.
In a number of jurisdictions, workers' compensation benefits have been awarded to workers who have suffered an injury en route to or from their home where the home is established as a "work situs" or a place of employment for the purposes of workers' compensation coverage. This can establish a good precedent for injuries on employees working from home.
The study of the going and coming rule and its certain exceptions in each state's case must be very helpful for improving the protection coverage about injuries while commuting in Korea. Specifically, any reasonable doubt as to the applicability of a particular doctrine, precluding compensation, must be resolved in the employee's favor. Also, the going and coming rule and its exceptions require us to find risks related with the employment and analyze this. Through this process, cases that have risks far in excess of those encountered in regular employment routine will be compensable.