diff --git a/roles/service/tasks/database.yaml b/roles/service/tasks/database.yaml
index 0c52ff5..93d8378 100644
--- a/roles/service/tasks/database.yaml
+++ b/roles/service/tasks/database.yaml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     container_env:
       POSTGRES_USER: "{{ service_name | replace('-', '_') }}"
       POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE: "/run/secrets/{{ _service_database_name }}"
+      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: "--encoding=UTF-8 --lc-collate=C --lc-ctype=C"
     container_auto_update: "{{ service_auto_update }}"
 
 - name: Get database secret info