diff --git a/worker.py b/worker.py
index e7ffec25..1dd62c4f 100644
--- a/worker.py
+++ b/worker.py
@@ -137,15 +137,13 @@ def notifyServer(self, job):
             if job.notifyURL:
                 outputFileName = job.outputFile.split(
                     "/")[-1]  # get filename from path
-                fh = open(job.outputFile, 'rb')
-                files = {'file': unicode(fh.read(), errors='ignore')}
+                files = {'file': open(job.outputFile, 'rb')}
                 hdrs = {'Filename': outputFileName}
                 self.log.debug("Sending request to %s" % job.notifyURL)
                 response = requests.post(
                     job.notifyURL, files=files, headers=hdrs, verify=False)
                 self.log.info("Response from callback to %s:%s" %
                               (job.notifyURL, response.content))
-                fh.close()
         except Exception as e:
             self.log.debug("Error in notifyServer: %s" % str(e))