diff --git a/helper/sync-db b/helper/sync-db
index b1144622..516cf663 100755
--- a/helper/sync-db
+++ b/helper/sync-db
@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ sub do_sync_db_timezones {
 
     my $sql = '';
     try {
-        $dbh->begin_work() or die "Cannot start tx: $DBI::errstr\n";
+        $dbh->begin_work() if $dbh->{AutoCommit};
         my ($cur_tzinfo_version) = $dbh->selectrow_array(<<SQL)
 SELECT version
   FROM ngcp.tzinfo_version
@@ -451,7 +451,7 @@ sub do_sync_timezone_version {
 
     my $sql = '';
     try {
-        $dbh->begin_work() or die "Cannot start tx: $DBI::errstr\n";
+        $dbh->begin_work() if $dbh->{AutoCommit};
         my ($cur_tz_version) = $dbh->selectrow_array(<<SQL)
 SELECT COALESCE(version,'')
   FROM ngcp.timezone