diff --git a/class/defaults.yml b/class/defaults.yml
index d3de5ee..e2cbe8e 100644
--- a/class/defaults.yml
+++ b/class/defaults.yml
@@ -163,14 +163,14 @@ parameters:
           severity: critical
       K8upBackupNotRunning:
         annotations:
-          message: No K8up jobs were run in {{ $labels.exported_namespace }} within the last 24 hours. Check the operator, there might be a deadlock
-        expr: sum(rate(k8up_jobs_total[25h])) == 0 and on(namespace) k8up_schedules_gauge > 0
+          message: No K8up jobs were run in {{ $labels.namespace }} within the last 24 hours. Check the operator, there might be a deadlock
+        expr: sum by (namespace) (rate(k8up_jobs_total[25h])) == 0 and on(namespace) k8up_schedules_gauge > 0
         for: 1m
         labels:
           severity: critical
       K8upJobStuck:
         annotations:
-          message: Queued K8up jobs in {{ $labels.exported_namespace }} for the last hour.
+          message: Queued K8up jobs in {{ $labels.namespace }} for the last hour.
         expr: k8up_jobs_queued_gauge{jobType="backup"} > 0 and on(namespace) k8up_schedules_gauge > 0
         for: 1h
         labels:
diff --git a/component/monitoring.jsonnet b/component/monitoring.jsonnet
index 5394fa3..8d2e869 100644
--- a/component/monitoring.jsonnet
+++ b/component/monitoring.jsonnet
@@ -27,6 +27,19 @@ local service_monitor = com.namespaced(params.namespace, {
       {
         interval: '10s',
         port: 'http',
+        // NOTE(sg): This is required to ensure that the backup namespace is
+        // preserved as label `namespace`. Without this, the scraped metrics
+        // have the backup namespace as `exported_namespace` and are useless
+        // for OCP User Workload monitoring users, because UWM only allows
+        // querying metrics whose `namespace` label matches the alert rule
+        // source namespace.
+        honorLabels: true,
+        // add k8up namespace as label `k8up_namespace`.
+        relabelings: [ {
+          action: 'replace',
+          sourceLabels: [ 'namespace' ],
+          targetLabel: 'k8up_namespace',
+        } ],
       },
     ],
     selector: {
diff --git a/tests/golden/defaults/backup-k8up/backup-k8up/30_monitoring.yaml b/tests/golden/defaults/backup-k8up/backup-k8up/30_monitoring.yaml
index ba15d24..6e13616 100644
--- a/tests/golden/defaults/backup-k8up/backup-k8up/30_monitoring.yaml
+++ b/tests/golden/defaults/backup-k8up/backup-k8up/30_monitoring.yaml
@@ -13,10 +13,10 @@ spec:
       rules:
         - alert: K8upBackupNotRunning
           annotations:
-            message: No K8up jobs were run in {{ $labels.exported_namespace }} within
-              the last 24 hours. Check the operator, there might be a deadlock
-          expr: sum(rate(k8up_jobs_total[25h])) == 0 and on(namespace) k8up_schedules_gauge
-            > 0
+            message: No K8up jobs were run in {{ $labels.namespace }} within the last
+              24 hours. Check the operator, there might be a deadlock
+          expr: sum by (namespace) (rate(k8up_jobs_total[25h])) == 0 and on(namespace)
+            k8up_schedules_gauge > 0
           for: 1m
           labels:
             severity: critical
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ spec:
             syn_component: backup-k8up
         - alert: K8upJobStuck
           annotations:
-            message: Queued K8up jobs in {{ $labels.exported_namespace }} for the
-              last hour.
+            message: Queued K8up jobs in {{ $labels.namespace }} for the last hour.
           expr: k8up_jobs_queued_gauge{jobType="backup"} > 0 and on(namespace) k8up_schedules_gauge
             > 0
           for: 1h
@@ -127,8 +126,14 @@ metadata:
   namespace: syn-backup-k8up
 spec:
   endpoints:
-    - interval: 10s
+    - honorLabels: true
+      interval: 10s
       port: http
+      relabelings:
+        - action: replace
+          sourceLabels:
+            - namespace
+          targetLabel: k8up_namespace
   selector:
     matchLabels:
       app.kubernetes.io/instance: k8up