diff --git a/backend/app/workers/queue_worker.py b/backend/app/workers/queue_worker.py
index 6dbb7ad..ba65f6a 100644
--- a/backend/app/workers/queue_worker.py
+++ b/backend/app/workers/queue_worker.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ def _auto_import_handlers() -> None:
     # If executed as a script (no package), make 'app' importable and alias this
     # module as 'app.workers.queue_worker' so that handler relative imports work
     if not pkg_name:
-        backend_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__)))  # .../backend
+        backend_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(__file__, '../../..'))  # .../backend
         if backend_dir not in sys.path:
             sys.path.insert(0, backend_dir)
         try: