diff --git a/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/binaries/idle b/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/binaries/idle
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..f5b1b2454
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/binaries/idle
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+tail -f /dev/null
diff --git a/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/docker-compose.yml b/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/docker-compose.yml
index 03b545982..a2e4ebc9e 100644
--- a/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/deployment/legacy-migration/maintenance-worker/docker-compose.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ version: "3.4"
 
 services:
   maintenance:
+    command: "idle" # remove this line to start neo4j automatically
     image: humanconnection/maintenance-worker:latest
     build:
       context: .