diff --git a/system-data-odbc/test.sh b/system-data-odbc/test.sh
index ea621e38..2098dbb3 100755
--- a/system-data-odbc/test.sh
+++ b/system-data-odbc/test.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ set -x
 if [[ $(id -u) == "0" ]]; then
     id testrunner || useradd testrunner || adduser testrunner --disabled-password
     chown -R testrunner:testrunner "$(pwd)"
-    su testrunner -c "$(readlink -f "$0")" "$@"
+    # root's XDG_RUNTIME_DIR may cause permission errors for the testrunner user
+    env XDG_RUNTIME_DIR= su testrunner -c "$(readlink -f "$0")" "$@"
     exit
 fi
 
diff --git a/workload/test.sh b/workload/test.sh
index 80501f7a..b5babd78 100755
--- a/workload/test.sh
+++ b/workload/test.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ mkdir -p "$(pwd)/workload-temp/"
 if [[ $(id -u) == "0" ]]; then
     id testrunner || useradd testrunner || adduser testrunner --disabled-password
     chmod ugo+rw "$(pwd)/workload-temp/"
-    su testrunner -c "$(readlink -f "$0")" "$@"
+    # root's XDG_RUNTIME_DIR may cause permission errors for the testrunner user
+    env XDG_RUNTIME_DIR= su testrunner -c "$(readlink -f "$0")" "$@"
     exit
 fi