diff --git a/bitbake/bin/bitbake-worker b/bitbake/bin/bitbake-worker
index b438d98dc9..2f21e7c662 100755
--- a/bitbake/bin/bitbake-worker
+++ b/bitbake/bin/bitbake-worker
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ def fork_off_task(cfg, data, workerdata, fn, task, taskname, appends, quieterror
                 os.umask(umask)
 
             data.setVar("BB_WORKERCONTEXT", "1")
+            data.setVar("BUILDNAME", workerdata["buildname"])
             bb.parse.siggen.set_taskdata(workerdata["hashes"], workerdata["hash_deps"], workerdata["sigchecksums"])
             ret = 0
             try:
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/runqueue.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/runqueue.py
index 0700a5bf71..8d36f282cc 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/runqueue.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/runqueue.py
@@ -852,6 +852,7 @@ class RunQueue:
             "logdefaultverboselogs" : bb.msg.loggerVerboseLogs,
             "logdefaultdomain" : bb.msg.loggerDefaultDomains,
             "prhost" : self.cooker.prhost,
+            "buildname" : self.cfgData.getVar("BUILDNAME", True),
         }
 
         worker.stdin.write("<cookerconfig>" + pickle.dumps(self.cooker.configuration) + "</cookerconfig>")