diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index c74a02c367b130a93217319d2a8afe9c3d9d4e32..1d536cdd20305dbdfdf4ebf840aeca4c58da680c 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -224,7 +224,17 @@
   *) Add print and set support for Issuing Distribution Point CRL extension.
      [Steve Henson]
 
- Changes between 0.9.8a and 0.9.8b  [XX xxx XXXX]
+ 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]
 
   *) When applying a cipher rule check to see if string match is an explicit
      cipher suite and only match that one cipher suite if it is.
diff --git a/ssl/t1_enc.c b/ssl/t1_enc.c
index cf38aa02f214165cccec6d854fc766b42be3a041..4baea2dc672464f1be7192b9347bf85f1952d9ce 100644
--- a/ssl/t1_enc.c
+++ b/ssl/t1_enc.c
@@ -654,7 +654,15 @@ 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,