diff --git a/LCS/PyCommon/cep4_utils.py b/LCS/PyCommon/cep4_utils.py
index 3bb3168638fc5719fa04231b3caa795ebf26d1f0..d8360a805b62b66bbc279aac4843c94025040b97 100644
--- a/LCS/PyCommon/cep4_utils.py
+++ b/LCS/PyCommon/cep4_utils.py
@@ -142,6 +142,9 @@ def convert_slurm_nodes_string_to_node_number_list(slurm_string):
     :param slurm_string: a string in 'slurm-like' node format, like cpu[01-03,11-12] or cpu01
     :return: a list of node numbers (ints)
     '''
+    if isinstance(slurm_string, bytes):
+        slurm_string = slurm_string.decode('utf-8')
+
     result = []
     stripped_slurm_string = slurm_string.strip()
     left_bracket_idx = stripped_slurm_string.find('[')