diff --git a/pkg/util/v1beta1/katibconfig/config.go b/pkg/util/v1beta1/katibconfig/config.go
index 97830cff0d3..2b15816b6d3 100644
--- a/pkg/util/v1beta1/katibconfig/config.go
+++ b/pkg/util/v1beta1/katibconfig/config.go
@@ -250,5 +250,15 @@ func setResourceRequirements(configResource corev1.ResourceRequirements) corev1.
 		defaultDiskLimit, _ := resource.ParseQuantity(consts.DefaultDiskLimit)
 		configResource.Limits[corev1.ResourceEphemeralStorage] = defaultDiskLimit
 	}
+
+	// If user explicitly sets ephemeral-storage value to something negative, nuke it.
+	// This enables compability with the GKE nodepool autoscalers, which cannot scale
+	// pods which define ephemeral-storage resource constraints.
+	if !diskLimit.IsZero() && !diskRequest.IsZero() {
+		if diskLimit.Sign() == -1 && diskRequest.Sign() == -1 {
+			delete(configResource.Limits, corev1.ResourceEphemeralStorage)
+			delete(configResource.Requests, corev1.ResourceEphemeralStorage)
+		}
+	}
 	return configResource
 }