diff --git a/qpid-docker/entrypoint.sh b/qpid-docker/entrypoint.sh
index 8af2430a58..044a9bcf6e 100644
--- a/qpid-docker/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/qpid-docker/entrypoint.sh
@@ -23,14 +23,14 @@ set -e
 
 if ! [ -f ./work/config.json ]; then
   if [ -d ./work-init ]; then
-      for file in `ls ./work-init`; do echo copying file to work folder: $file; cp ./work-init/$file ./work || :; done
+      for file in `ls ./work-init`; do echo copying file to work folder: $file; cp -r ./work-init/$file ./work || :; done
   fi
   sed -i "s/QPID_ADMIN_USER/${QPID_ADMIN_USER}/g" /qpid-broker-j/work/broker.acl
   if [ -d ./work-override ]; then
-    for file in `ls ./work-override`; do echo copying file to work folder: $file; cp ./work-override/$file ./work || :; done
+    for file in `ls ./work-override`; do echo copying file to work folder: $file; cp -r ./work-override/$file ./work || :; done
   fi
 else
   echo "skipping broker instance creation; instance already exists"
 fi
 
-exec java -server $JAVA_GC $JAVA_MEM $JAVA_OPTS -DQPID_HOME=/qpid-broker-j -DQPID_WORK=/qpid-broker-j/work -cp "/qpid-broker-j/lib/*" org.apache.qpid.server.Main
\ No newline at end of file
+exec java -server $JAVA_GC $JAVA_MEM $JAVA_OPTS -DQPID_HOME=/qpid-broker-j -DQPID_WORK=/qpid-broker-j/work -cp "/qpid-broker-j/lib/*" org.apache.qpid.server.Main