'We condemn the violence that took her life'

A man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employee during a virtual work meeting at home, a case testing federal safety rules for home workplaces.

Montreal police arrested Youcef Moussaoui, 33, on Oct. 15; he was charged Oct. 16 in the Sept. 22 death of Leïla Ben Salem, 45, whose killing COS first reported last month, CTV News reported. He returns to court Dec. 21.

Police said the killing was not domestic violence and that evidence, "including the alleged motive for the murder, will be made public during the legal proceedings," CTV News reported.

Attack during the workday

Officers on a 3:25 p.m. wellness check found Ben Salem dead. Police said someone had entered and beaten her to death, CTV News reported.

In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Mark Carney described Ben Salem as "dedicated to serving Canadians, which she was doing at the time of her assault."

The Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), which represents more than 32,000 CRA employees, directed affected staff and their families to the employee assistance program, Canadian HR Reporter reported. "We condemn the violence that took her life," national president Adam Jackson wrote, CTV News reported.

What federal law requires

As a federal employer, the CRA falls under Part II of the Canada Labour Code, while Quebec's Act respecting occupational health and safety, which Bill 59 extended to telework, covers provincially regulated employers.

Employment and Social Development Canada's guidance says violence anywhere an employee is working counts as an "occurrence," including in a home under a work-from-home agreement. Under the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations, an occurrence that kills an employee must be reported to the Labour Program within 24 hours of the employer learning of the death. Where the person responsible is not an employee, the employer and the workplace committee must jointly review the workplace risk assessment and its preventive measures.

The Code also requires the Labour Program to investigate every employee death that occurs while the person is working. In 2012, a federal appeals officer upheld a direction against Royal Bank of Canada for reporting a workplace death seven days late, though the bank believed it was of natural causes.

Practical steps for safety teams

Patrick Essiminy, a partner at Stikeman Elliott in Montreal, told Canadian HR Reporter that any link between the killing and Ben Salem's work is for investigators to establish. Speaking generally about domestic violence risks, he said an employer "is not monitoring what's going on in between private walls," so remote staff need clear ways to report concerns.

Aaron Zaltzman of Whitten & Lublin practises in Ontario, but his advice travels. He told Canadian HR Reporter that employers should treat home and office workplaces the same, plan for remote workers who cannot be reached, and support colleagues who witness trauma online as they would on site.

Written violence policies should name home offices, and some employers use mobile check-in and alert tools built for lone workers. The Labour Program's 24-hour clock starts when the employer learns of a death, not when police determine its cause.