diff --git a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.sh b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.sh
index 7bebea682b..9d586cd8cc 100755
--- a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.sh
+++ b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.sh
@@ -91,11 +91,18 @@ for phase in "${PHASES[@]}"; do
                     mv /etc/machine-id /etc/machine-id.bak
                 fi
             fi
+
+            # On ppc64le the workers are slower and some slow tests time out
+            MESON_TEST_ARGS=()
+            if [[ "$(uname -m)" != "x86_64" ]] && [[ "$(uname -m)" != "aarch64" ]]; then
+                MESON_TEST_ARGS+=(--timeout-multiplier=3)
+            fi
+
             MESON_ARGS+=(--fatal-meson-warnings)
             run_meson -Dnobody-group=nogroup --werror -Dtests=unsafe -Dslow-tests=true -Dfuzz-tests=true "${MESON_ARGS[@]}" build
             ninja -C build -v
             # Ensure setting a timezone (like the reproducible build tests do) does not break time/date unit tests
-            TZ=GMT+12 meson test -C build --print-errorlogs
+            TZ=GMT+12 meson test "${MESON_TEST_ARGS[@]}" -C build --print-errorlogs
             ;;
         RUN_ASAN_UBSAN|RUN_GCC_ASAN_UBSAN|RUN_CLANG_ASAN_UBSAN|RUN_CLANG_ASAN_UBSAN_NO_DEPS)
             MESON_ARGS=(--optimization=1)