diff --git a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/annotations.go b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/annotations.go
index 60a1d28f9ef..85f1745a8c5 100644
--- a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/annotations.go
+++ b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/annotations.go
@@ -34,4 +34,5 @@ const (
 	PortNameMappingKeyFormat = PortNameMappingKeyPrefix + "%s_%s"
 	ContainerPortKeyFormat   = "k8s.mesosphere.io/containerPort_%s_%s_%d"
 	StaticPodFilenameKey     = "k8s.mesosphere.io/staticPodFilename"
+	RolesKey                 = "k8s.mesosphere.io/roles"
 )
diff --git a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/labels.go b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/labels.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 8353b4153eb..00000000000
--- a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/meta/labels.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-/*
-Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
-
-Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
-    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
-Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-limitations under the License.
-*/
-
-package meta
-
-// kubernetes api object labels
-const (
-	RolesKey = "k8s.mesosphere.io/roles"
-)
diff --git a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task.go b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task.go
index 30740fed6c4..05b0bbf5b64 100644
--- a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task.go
+++ b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task.go
@@ -170,10 +170,10 @@ func (t *T) Has(f FlagType) (exists bool) {
 }
 
 // Roles returns the valid roles under which this pod task can be scheduled.
-// If the pod has roles labels defined they are being used
+// If the pod has roles annotations defined they are being used
 // else default pod roles are being returned.
-func (t *T) Roles() []string {
-	if r, ok := t.Pod.ObjectMeta.Labels[annotation.RolesKey]; ok {
+func (t *T) Roles() (result []string) {
+	if r, ok := t.Pod.ObjectMeta.Annotations[annotation.RolesKey]; ok {
 		roles := strings.Split(r, ",")
 
 		for i, r := range roles {
diff --git a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task_test.go b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task_test.go
index 92671736240..ba15499cbfd 100644
--- a/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task_test.go
+++ b/contrib/mesos/pkg/scheduler/podtask/pod_task_test.go
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ func TestRoles(t *testing.T) {
 	assert := assert.New(t)
 
 	for i, tt := range []struct {
-		labels         map[string]string
+		annotations    map[string]string
 		frameworkRoles []string
 		want           []string
 	}{
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ func TestRoles(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	} {
 		task := fakePodTask("test", tt.frameworkRoles, starRole)
-		task.Pod.ObjectMeta.Labels = tt.labels
+		task.Pod.ObjectMeta.Annotations = tt.annotations
 		assert.True(reflect.DeepEqual(task.Roles(), tt.want), "test #%d got %#v want %#v", i, task.Roles(), tt.want)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/test/e2e/mesos.go b/test/e2e/mesos.go
index f2b97096d4d..6843ce0c8b0 100644
--- a/test/e2e/mesos.go
+++ b/test/e2e/mesos.go
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Mesos", func() {
 			fmt.Sprintf("number of static pods in namespace %s is %d", ns, numpods))
 	})
 
-	It("schedules pods labelled with roles on correct slaves", func() {
+	It("schedules pods annotated with roles on correct slaves", func() {
 		// launch a pod to find a node which can launch a pod. We intentionally do
 		// not just take the node list and choose the first of them. Depending on the
 		// cluster and the scheduler it might be that a "normal" pod cannot be
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Mesos", func() {
 			},
 			ObjectMeta: api.ObjectMeta{
 				Name: podName,
-				Labels: map[string]string{
+				Annotations: map[string]string{
 					"k8s.mesosphere.io/roles": "public",
 				},
 			},