diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index ee9e4250f6..c9c1c50cdb 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -4,7 +4,13 @@
 
  Changes between 0.9.8b and 0.9.8c  [xx XXX xxxx]
 
-  *)
+  *) Disable the padding bug check when compression is in use. The padding
+     bug check assumes the first packet is of even length, this is not
+     necessarily true if compresssion is enabled and can result in false
+     positives causing handshake failure. The actual bug test is ancient
+     code so it is hoped that implementations will either have fixed it by
+     now or any which still have the bug do not support compression.
+     [Steve Henson]
 
  Changes between 0.9.8a and 0.9.8b  [04 May 2006]
 
diff --git a/ssl/t1_enc.c b/ssl/t1_enc.c
index c544c76495..e0ce681574 100644
--- a/ssl/t1_enc.c
+++ b/ssl/t1_enc.c
@@ -628,7 +628,15 @@ int tls1_enc(SSL *s, int send)
 			{
 			ii=i=rec->data[l-1]; /* padding_length */
 			i++;
-			if (s->options&SSL_OP_TLS_BLOCK_PADDING_BUG)
+			/* NB: if compression is in operation the first packet
+			 * may not be of even length so the padding bug check
+			 * cannot be performed. This bug workaround has been
+			 * around since SSLeay so hopefully it is either fixed
+			 * now or no buggy implementation supports compression 
+			 * [steve]
+			 */
+			if ( (s->options&SSL_OP_TLS_BLOCK_PADDING_BUG)
+				&& !s->expand)
 				{
 				/* First packet is even in size, so check */
 				if ((memcmp(s->s3->read_sequence,