diff --git a/pkg/workceptor/remote_work.go b/pkg/workceptor/remote_work.go
index b29a8cbc5..7aec7773b 100644
--- a/pkg/workceptor/remote_work.go
+++ b/pkg/workceptor/remote_work.go
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ func (rw *remoteUnit) startRemoteUnit(ctx context.Context, conn net.Conn, reader
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("read error reading from %s: %s", red.RemoteNode, err)
 	}
-	submitIDRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`with ID ([.\-_@a-zA-Z0-9]+)\.`)
+	submitIDRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`with ID ([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\.`)
 	match := submitIDRegex.FindSubmatch([]byte(response))
 	if match == nil || len(match) != 2 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not parse response: %s", strings.TrimRight(response, "\n"))
diff --git a/pkg/workceptor/workceptor.go b/pkg/workceptor/workceptor.go
index 674ecfc99..199867466 100644
--- a/pkg/workceptor/workceptor.go
+++ b/pkg/workceptor/workceptor.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"reflect"
+	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -162,7 +163,7 @@ func (w *Workceptor) generateUnitID(lock bool, workUnitID string) (string, error
 	for {
 		if workUnitID == "" {
 			rstr := randstr.RandomString(8)
-			nid := w.nc.NodeID()
+			nid := regexp.MustCompile(`[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]+`).ReplaceAllString(w.nc.NodeID(), "")
 			ident = fmt.Sprintf("%s%s", nid, rstr)
 		} else {
 			ident = workUnitID