diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index c211e31..6f84353 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ dependencies {
         exclude group: 'ch.qos.logback', module: 'logback-classic'
         exclude group: 'org.slf4j', module: 'slf4j-api'
         exclude group: 'io.minio'   // This is not used in the Worker, since it's the Controller which uploads the full-texts to S3. It also includes an older "commons-compress" version which causes problems.
+        exclude group: 'org.apache.commons', module: 'commons-compress'
     }
 
     implementation group: 'com.google.guava', name: 'guava', version: '33.2.0-jre'
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/FilesCompressor.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/FilesCompressor.java
index 95e754d..22dc208 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/FilesCompressor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/urls_worker/util/FilesCompressor.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package eu.openaire.urls_worker.util;
 
+import com.github.luben.zstd.Zstd;
 import eu.openaire.urls_worker.controllers.FullTextsController;
 import eu.openaire.urls_worker.models.TarFileResult;
 import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveEntry;
@@ -24,6 +25,8 @@ public class FilesCompressor {
 
     public static final int bufferSize = (5 * 1_048_576);   // 5 Mb
 
+    public static final int maxCompressionLevel = Zstd.maxCompressionLevel();
+
 
     public static File compressMultipleFilesIntoOne(long assignmentsCounter, int tarBatchCounter, List<String> filesToCompress, String baseDirectory)
     {
@@ -51,7 +54,7 @@ public class FilesCompressor {
         File zStandardFile = new File(zStandardFileFullPath);
 
         try ( BufferedInputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(Files.newInputStream(Paths.get(tarFilePath)), bufferSize);
-              ZstdCompressorOutputStream zOut = new ZstdCompressorOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(Files.newOutputStream(zStandardFile.toPath())), bufferSize) )
+              ZstdCompressorOutputStream zOut = new ZstdCompressorOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(Files.newOutputStream(zStandardFile.toPath()), bufferSize), maxCompressionLevel) )
         {
             int readByte;
             while ( (readByte = in.read()) != -1 )