diff --git a/.github/workflows/eb_command.yml b/.github/workflows/eb_command.yml
index 74245f97b8..ac909b5cd3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/eb_command.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/eb_command.yml
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ jobs:
         # update to latest pip, check version
         pip install --upgrade pip
         pip --version
+        if [[ "${{matrix.python}}" == 3.12 ]]; then
+            # needed for python setup.py sdist
+            pip install --upgrade setuptools
+        fi
 
         # for modules tool
         APT_PKGS="lua5.2 liblua5.2-dev lua-filesystem lua-posix tcl tcl-dev"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yml b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yml
index 5698ece42c..60fdba402e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yml
@@ -85,6 +85,10 @@ jobs:
         pip install --upgrade pip
         pip --version
         pip install -r requirements.txt
+        if [[ "${{matrix.python}}" == 3.12 ]]; then
+            # needed for python setup.py sdist
+            pip install --upgrade setuptools
+        fi
         # git config is required to make actual git commits (cfr. tests for GitRepository)
         git config --global user.name "Travis CI"
         git config --global user.email "travis@travis-ci.org"