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A public service employee for the government agency responsible for the health and safety of Canada’s food supply was fired after an office water cooler was spiked with chlorine bleach.

Now, he’s lost his bid to have his dismissal overturned.

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Keven Knox lost his job after the water cooler in the basement loading dock of Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Carling Lab was determined to have been contaminated in September 2011, according to a decision released this spring by the Public Service Relations Board.

Knox had filed a grievance over the government’s decision to suspend and then fire him, but an adjudicator with the labour relations board upheld both those decisions, finding they were reasonable and necessary to protect the safety of the other staff.

Knox was terminated nine months after a co-worker reported a strong chlorine smell and “very hard taste” to the water that came from the cooler in Knox’s office. The co-worker took the water to his supervisor, who also noted the chlorine smell.