diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index bc48090cdee85b8ee19570030888d3a2440d29eb..cba93f48b82324a0a1484c0fa30515a3cc8bf6e0 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1328,7 +1328,9 @@ voip-be-on-merge-request:
   - public_dir="$CI_JOB_NAME-public"
 
   # if is needed to catch case when no artifact is there (first run), similarly as above
-  - if [[ -d $public_dir ]]; then
+  # 1. check for public_dir being there as this might not be the case when artifact download failed
+  # 2. check for public dir not being empty - handle job failures in prev job that happen after the dir is created. In that case, the empty dir is in the artifacts
+  - if [ -d $public_dir ] && [ ! -z "$( ls -A $public_dir )" ]; then
   -   mv $public_dir/* wmops/
   # check here if we have the split-by-levels files present - if not, fake them up with the existing global one
   # this is needed for the first run with split graphs on a branch where the global version did run previously