diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/BourneShellScript.java b/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/BourneShellScript.java
index bed07841..162c4e23 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/BourneShellScript.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/BourneShellScript.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 import jenkins.model.Jenkins;
 import jenkins.security.MasterToSlaveCallable;
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.DataBoundConstructor;
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 
 /**
  * Runs a Bourne shell script on a Unix node using {@code nohup}.
@@ -85,7 +86,9 @@ public String getScript() {
             listener.getLogger().println("Warning: was asked to run an empty script");
         }
 
-        ShellController c = new ShellController(ws);
+        String encoding = ws.act(new ZosCheck()) ? "IBM1047" : null;
+
+        ShellController c = new ShellController(ws, encoding);
 
         FilePath shf = c.getScriptFile(ws);
 
@@ -95,7 +98,7 @@ public String getScript() {
             String defaultShell = jenkins.getInjector().getInstance(Shell.DescriptorImpl.class).getShellOrDefault(ws.getChannel());
             s = "#!"+defaultShell+" -xe\n" + s;
         }
-        shf.write(s, "UTF-8");
+        shf.write(s, encoding==null ? "UTF-8" : encoding);
         shf.chmod(0755);
 
         envVars.put(cookieVariable, "please-do-not-kill-me");
@@ -153,8 +156,8 @@ public String getScript() {
         private int pid;
         private final long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
-        private ShellController(FilePath ws) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
-            super(ws);
+        private ShellController(FilePath ws, String encoding) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+            super(ws, encoding);
         }
 
         public FilePath getScriptFile(FilePath ws) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
@@ -170,7 +173,10 @@ private synchronized int pid(FilePath ws) throws IOException, InterruptedExcepti
                 FilePath pidFile = pidFile(ws);
                 if (pidFile.exists()) {
                     try {
-                        pid = Integer.parseInt(pidFile.readToString().trim());
+                        final String pidStr = this.getEncoding() == null ? 
+                                pidFile.readToString().trim() : // original behavior
+                                IOUtils.toString(pidFile.read(),this.getEncoding());
+                        pid = Integer.parseInt(pidStr.trim());
                     } catch (NumberFormatException x) {
                         throw new IOException("corrupted content in " + pidFile + ": " + x, x);
                     }
@@ -221,4 +227,10 @@ private static final class DarwinCheck extends MasterToSlaveCallable<Boolean,Run
         }
     }
 
+    private static final class ZosCheck extends MasterToSlaveCallable<Boolean,RuntimeException> {
+        @Override public Boolean call() throws RuntimeException {
+            return Platform.current() == Platform.UNIX && System.getProperty("os.name").equals("z/OS");
+        }
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/FileMonitoringTask.java b/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/FileMonitoringTask.java
index 163ca833..84261208 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/FileMonitoringTask.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/durabletask/FileMonitoringTask.java
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@
 import hudson.slaves.WorkspaceList;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.UUID;
@@ -43,6 +45,7 @@
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 import jenkins.MasterToSlaveFileCallable;
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.io.output.WriterOutputStream;
 
 /**
  * A task which forks some external command and then waits for log and status files to be updated/created.
@@ -94,18 +97,41 @@ protected static class FileMonitoringController extends Controller {
          */
         private long lastLocation;
 
+        /**
+         * Encoding of input/output of the sh.
+         * If null no character conversion to be done.
+         */
+        private String encoding;
+
+        /**
+         * @return Encoding of the files to be monitored.
+         * If null handled without conversion just as byte stream.
+         */
+        public String getEncoding() {
+            return encoding;
+        }
+
         protected FileMonitoringController(FilePath ws) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+            this(ws,null);
+        }
+
+        protected FileMonitoringController(FilePath ws, String encoding) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
             // can't keep ws reference because Controller is expected to be serializable
             ws.mkdirs();
             FilePath cd = tempDir(ws).child("durable-" + Util.getDigestOf(UUID.randomUUID().toString()).substring(0,8));
             cd.mkdirs();
             controlDir = cd.getRemote();
+            this.encoding = encoding;
         }
 
         @Override public final boolean writeLog(FilePath workspace, OutputStream sink) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
             FilePath log = getLogFile(workspace);
+            if (this.getEncoding() != null)	{
+                sink = new WriterOutputStream(new OutputStreamWriter(sink, "UTF-8"), this.getEncoding());
+            }
             Long newLocation = log.act(new WriteLog(lastLocation, new RemoteOutputStream(sink)));
             if (newLocation != null) {
+                if (this.getEncoding() != null) sink.flush();
                 LOGGER.log(Level.FINE, "copied {0} bytes from {1}", new Object[] {newLocation - lastLocation, log});
                 lastLocation = newLocation;
                 return true;
@@ -149,7 +175,10 @@ private static class WriteLog extends MasterToSlaveFileCallable<Long> {
             FilePath status = getResultFile(workspace);
             if (status.exists()) {
                 try {
-                    return Integer.parseInt(status.readToString().trim());
+                    final String statusStr = this.getEncoding() == null ? 
+                            status.readToString().trim() : // original behavior
+                            IOUtils.toString(status.read(),this.getEncoding());
+                    return Integer.parseInt(statusStr.trim());
                 } catch (NumberFormatException x) {
                     throw new IOException("corrupted content in " + status + ": " + x, x);
                 }
@@ -160,7 +189,9 @@ private static class WriteLog extends MasterToSlaveFileCallable<Long> {
 
         @Override public byte[] getOutput(FilePath workspace, Launcher launcher) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
             // TODO could perhaps be more efficient for large files to send a MasterToSlaveFileCallable<byte[]>
-            return IOUtils.toByteArray(getOutputFile(workspace).read());
+            return this.getEncoding() == null ?
+                        IOUtils.toByteArray(getOutputFile(workspace).read()) :
+                        IOUtils.toByteArray(new InputStreamReader(getOutputFile(workspace).read(),this.getEncoding()), "UTF-8");
         }
 
         @Override public final void stop(FilePath workspace, Launcher launcher) throws IOException, InterruptedException {