diff --git a/fontbe/src/kern.rs b/fontbe/src/kern.rs
index 498355233..dde800f25 100644
--- a/fontbe/src/kern.rs
+++ b/fontbe/src/kern.rs
@@ -253,10 +253,7 @@ impl Work<Context, AnyWorkId, Error> for KerningGatherWork {
     }
 
     fn read_access(&self) -> Access<AnyWorkId> {
-        AccessBuilder::new()
-            .variant(WorkId::GatherIrKerning) // until this runs there are no kern fragments to await
-            .variant(WorkId::KernFragment(0))
-            .build()
+        Access::Unknown // https://github.com/googlefonts/fontc/issues/647: don't enable until KernFragment's spawn
     }
 
     fn exec(&self, context: &Context) -> Result<(), Error> {
diff --git a/fontc/src/workload.rs b/fontc/src/workload.rs
index a1e68e46b..ec901c3d5 100644
--- a/fontc/src/workload.rs
+++ b/fontc/src/workload.rs
@@ -311,6 +311,15 @@ impl<'a> Workload<'a> {
             for work in create_kern_segment_work(&kern_pairs) {
                 self.add(work.into(), true);
             }
+
+            // https://github.com/googlefonts/fontc/issues/647: it is now safe to set read access on segment gathering
+            self.jobs_pending
+                .get_mut(&AnyWorkId::Be(BeWorkIdentifier::GatherBeKerning))
+                .expect("Gather BE Kerning has to be pending")
+                .read_access = AccessBuilder::<AnyWorkId>::new()
+                .variant(BeWorkIdentifier::KernFragment(0))
+                .build()
+                .into();
         }
 
         if let AnyWorkId::Fe(FeWorkIdentifier::Glyph(glyph_name)) = success {