diff --git a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_te_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_te_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
index 8fc0b04c8c8..00a11b9a439 100644
--- a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_te_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
+++ b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_te_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
@@ -53,4 +53,10 @@ MODEL_ARGS:
   --ckpt-format: torch
   --attention-backend: unfused
   --log-memory-to-tensorboard: true
+  # Synchronous data loading: the default 2 persistent dataloader workers
+  # (pin_memory, no DataLoader timeout) can stall on the CI data mount, leaving
+  # the rank blocked in get_batch -> queue.get forever -> the other ranks time
+  # out in the grad all-reduce (600s NCCL watchdog). In-process loading removes
+  # the worker-queue hang surface; test data is tiny so perf impact is nil.
+  --num-workers: 0
 TEST_TYPE: ckpt-resume
diff --git a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1/model_config.yaml b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1/model_config.yaml
index f8e6db5d685..805cc3e9858 100644
--- a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1/model_config.yaml
+++ b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1/model_config.yaml
@@ -51,4 +51,10 @@ MODEL_ARGS:
   --deterministic-mode: true
   --ckpt-format: torch
   --log-memory-to-tensorboard: true
+  # Synchronous data loading: the default 2 persistent dataloader workers
+  # (pin_memory, no DataLoader timeout) can stall on the CI data mount, leaving
+  # the rank blocked in get_batch -> queue.get forever -> the other ranks time
+  # out in the grad all-reduce (600s NCCL watchdog). In-process loading removes
+  # the worker-queue hang surface; test data is tiny so perf impact is nil.
+  --num-workers: 0
 TEST_TYPE: regular
diff --git a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
index 314a960cc75..5b1e192a3a9 100644
--- a/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
+++ b/tests/functional_tests/test_cases/t5/t5_mcore_tp1_pp1_vp1_resume_torch/model_config.yaml
@@ -51,4 +51,10 @@ MODEL_ARGS:
   --deterministic-mode: true
   --ckpt-format: torch
   --log-memory-to-tensorboard: true
+  # Synchronous data loading: the default 2 persistent dataloader workers
+  # (pin_memory, no DataLoader timeout) can stall on the CI data mount, leaving
+  # the rank blocked in get_batch -> queue.get forever -> the other ranks time
+  # out in the grad all-reduce (600s NCCL watchdog). In-process loading removes
+  # the worker-queue hang surface; test data is tiny so perf impact is nil.
+  --num-workers: 0
 TEST_TYPE: ckpt-resume