diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPoller.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPoller.java
index 67dbb181a..33bd077a6 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPoller.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPoller.java
@@ -92,11 +92,12 @@ public class DirectPoller<S> implements Poller<S> {
 
 			Long nextExecutionTime = startTime + interval;
 			long currentTimeMillis = System.currentTimeMillis();
+			long timeoutMillis = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(timeout, unit);
 
 			while (result == null && !cancelled) {
 
 				long delta = nextExecutionTime - startTime;
-				if (delta >= timeout && timeout > 0) {
+				if (delta >= timeoutMillis && timeoutMillis > 0) {
 					throw new TimeoutException("Timed out waiting for task to return non-null result");
 				}
 
diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPollerTests.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPollerTests.java
index 62ae9216c..2d9de3b6c 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPollerTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/poller/DirectPollerTests.java
@@ -59,6 +59,30 @@ public class DirectPollerTests {
 
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testTimeUnit() throws Exception {
+
+		Callable<String> callback = new Callable<String>() {
+
+			public String call() throws Exception {
+				Set<String> executions = new HashSet<String>(repository);
+				if (executions.isEmpty()) {
+					return null;
+				}
+				return executions.iterator().next();
+			}
+
+		};
+
+		sleepAndCreateStringInBackground(500L);
+
+		Future<String> task = new DirectPoller<String>(100L).poll(callback);
+
+		String value = task.get(1L, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+		assertEquals("foo", value);
+
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testWithError() throws Exception {