diff --git a/.github/workflows/patch.yml b/.github/workflows/patch.yml
index cd3f8d97aac..80325d2e087 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/patch.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/patch.yml
@@ -119,6 +119,15 @@ jobs:
           git -C "apps/frappe" remote set-url upstream https://github.com/frappe/frappe.git
           git -C "apps/erpnext" remote set-url upstream https://github.com/frappe/erpnext.git
 
+          # Start every bench process except the background workers. If workers run during a
+          # migrate, they pick up the orphan-link cleanup jobs it enqueues and race its schema
+          # changes, which fails with MySQL 1412 "Table definition has changed". Redis and the
+          # other services stay up; the queued jobs simply wait and are harmless here.
+          function start_bench_without_workers() {
+            local procs
+            procs=$(awk -F: '/^[a-z_]+:/ && $1 !~ /worker/ {print $1}' ~/frappe-bench/Procfile)
+            honcho start -f ~/frappe-bench/Procfile $procs &>> ~/frappe-bench/bench_start.log &
+          }
 
           function update_to_version() {
             version=$1
@@ -138,7 +147,7 @@ jobs:
             rm -rf ~/frappe-bench/env
             bench -v setup env --python python$2
             bench pip install -e ./apps/erpnext
-            bench start &>> ~/frappe-bench/bench_start.log &
+            start_bench_without_workers
 
             bench --site test_site migrate
           }
@@ -155,7 +164,7 @@ jobs:
           rm -rf ~/frappe-bench/env
           bench -v setup env
           bench pip install -e ./apps/erpnext
-          bench start &>> ~/frappe-bench/bench_start.log &
+          start_bench_without_workers
 
           bench --site test_site migrate