diff --git a/include/picongpu/plugins/openPMD/writer/ParticleAttribute.hpp b/include/picongpu/plugins/openPMD/writer/ParticleAttribute.hpp
index 01b6a7aff7..922d555de1 100644
--- a/include/picongpu/plugins/openPMD/writer/ParticleAttribute.hpp
+++ b/include/picongpu/plugins/openPMD/writer/ParticleAttribute.hpp
@@ -158,6 +158,21 @@ namespace picongpu
                 if(elements == 0)
                 {
                     // accumulateWrittenBytes += 0;
+
+#    if !OPENPMDAPI_VERSION_GE(0, 17, 0)
+                    // Workaround for this bug: https://github.com/openPMD/openPMD-api/pull/1794
+                    // In the affected versions of the openPMD-api, Span-based storeChunk must be
+                    // treated as an MPI-collective call.
+                    for(uint32_t d = 0; d < components; d++)
+                    {
+                        ::openPMD::RecordComponent recordComponent
+                            = components > 1 ? record[name_lookup[d]] : record[::openPMD::MeshRecordComponent::SCALAR];
+
+                        recordComponent.storeChunk<ComponentType>(
+                            ::openPMD::Offset{globalOffset},
+                            ::openPMD::Extent{elements});
+                    }
+#    endif
                     return;
                 }