diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 7c5b89f..0a23503 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -289,7 +289,6 @@ env.Append(CFLAGS='-D_GNU_SOURCE')
 
 # And we need some libraries
 env.MergeFlags("-lm")
-env.MergeFlags("-pthread")
 
 # DESTDIR environment variable means user wants to prefix the installation root.
 DESTDIR = os.environ.get('DESTDIR', '')
@@ -498,6 +497,9 @@ else:
                    '-Wstrict-prototypes', '-Wpointer-arith', '-Wreturn-type'):
         config.CheckCompilerOption(option)
 
+    if config.CheckCompilerOption("-pthread"):
+        env.MergeFlags("-pthread")
+
     env.Prepend(LIBPATH=[os.path.realpath(os.curdir)])
     if env["shared"] and env["chrpath"]:
         if WhereIs('chrpath'):