diff --git a/lib/galaxy/jobs/runners/slurm.py b/lib/galaxy/jobs/runners/slurm.py
index 98c373d96645..db1ed9b3d002 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/jobs/runners/slurm.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/jobs/runners/slurm.py
@@ -7,7 +7,10 @@
 
 from galaxy import model
 from galaxy.jobs.runners.drmaa import DRMAAJobRunner
-from galaxy.util import commands
+from galaxy.util import (
+    commands,
+    unicodify,
+)
 from galaxy.util.custom_logging import get_logger
 
 log = get_logger(__name__)
@@ -212,12 +215,12 @@ def __check_memory_limit(self, efile_path):
         """
         try:
             log.debug("Checking %s for exceeded memory message from SLURM", efile_path)
-            with open(efile_path) as f:
+            with open(efile_path, "rb") as f:
                 if os.path.getsize(efile_path) > 2048:
                     f.seek(-2048, os.SEEK_END)
                     f.readline()
                 for line in f.readlines():
-                    stripped_line = line.strip()
+                    stripped_line = unicodify(line.strip())
                     if stripped_line == SLURM_MEMORY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED_MSG:
                         return OUT_OF_MEMORY_MSG
                     elif any(_ in stripped_line for _ in SLURM_MEMORY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED_PARTIAL_WARNINGS):