diff --git a/.github/workflows/release_test_pypi_before_merge.yml b/.github/workflows/release_test_pypi_before_merge.yml
index 49c626265..284ab4d1a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release_test_pypi_before_merge.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release_test_pypi_before_merge.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@ jobs:
         echo $new_version > ./version.txt
         echo "version=$new_version" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
 
-    - run: python setup.py sdist build
+    - run: |
+        pip install --upgrade pip
+        python setup.py sdist build
 
     # publish to PyPI if executed on the main branch
     - name: Publish package to PyPI
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
index 1c09c74e2..42045acae 100644
--- a/version.txt
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.3.3
+0.3.4