diff --git a/src/omero/util/populate_metadata.py b/src/omero/util/populate_metadata.py
index c2a65c9ec..1dfda363d 100644
--- a/src/omero/util/populate_metadata.py
+++ b/src/omero/util/populate_metadata.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 from omero.util import pydict_text_io
 from omero import client
 
-from .populate_roi import ThreadPool
+from omero.util.populate_roi import ThreadPool
 
 
 log = logging.getLogger("omero.util.populate_metadata")