diff --git a/dask_kubernetes/common/networking.py b/dask_kubernetes/common/networking.py
index 95ea501f8..9008856c4 100644
--- a/dask_kubernetes/common/networking.py
+++ b/dask_kubernetes/common/networking.py
@@ -11,13 +11,17 @@
 
 
 async def get_external_address_for_scheduler_service(
-    core_api, service, port_forward_cluster_ip=None, service_name_resolution_retries=20
+    core_api,
+    service,
+    port_forward_cluster_ip=None,
+    service_name_resolution_retries=20,
+    port_name="comm",
 ):
     """Take a service object and return the scheduler address."""
     [port] = [
         port.port
         for port in service.spec.ports
-        if port.name == service.metadata.name or port.name == "comm"
+        if port.name == service.metadata.name or port.name == port_name
     ]
     if service.spec.type == "LoadBalancer":
         lb = service.status.load_balancer.ingress[0]
@@ -104,13 +108,16 @@ async def port_forward_dashboard(service_name, namespace):
     return port
 
 
-async def get_scheduler_address(service_name, namespace):
+async def get_scheduler_address(service_name, namespace, port_name="comm"):
     async with kubernetes.client.api_client.ApiClient() as api_client:
         api = kubernetes.client.CoreV1Api(api_client)
         service = await api.read_namespaced_service(service_name, namespace)
         port_forward_cluster_ip = None
         address = await get_external_address_for_scheduler_service(
-            api, service, port_forward_cluster_ip=port_forward_cluster_ip
+            api,
+            service,
+            port_forward_cluster_ip=port_forward_cluster_ip,
+            port_name=port_name,
         )
         return address
 
diff --git a/dask_kubernetes/operator/operator.py b/dask_kubernetes/operator/operator.py
index b900c4dee..553337389 100644
--- a/dask_kubernetes/operator/operator.py
+++ b/dask_kubernetes/operator/operator.py
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 import asyncio
-
-from distributed.core import rpc
+import aiohttp
+from contextlib import suppress
 
 import kopf
 import kubernetes_asyncio as kubernetes
 
 from uuid import uuid4
 
+from distributed.core import rpc
+
 from dask_kubernetes.common.auth import ClusterAuth
 from dask_kubernetes.common.networking import (
     get_scheduler_address,
@@ -195,6 +197,52 @@ async def daskworkergroup_create(spec, name, namespace, logger, **kwargs):
     )
 
 
+async def retire_workers(
+    n_workers, scheduler_service_name, worker_group_name, namespace, logger
+):
+    # Try gracefully retiring via the HTTP API
+    dashboard_address = await get_scheduler_address(
+        scheduler_service_name,
+        namespace,
+        port_name="dashboard",
+    )
+    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
+        url = f"{dashboard_address}/api/v1/retire_workers"
+        params = {"n": n_workers}
+        async with session.post(url, json=params) as resp:
+            if resp.status <= 300:
+                retired_workers = await resp.json()
+                return [retired_workers[w]["name"] for w in retired_workers.keys()]
+
+    # Otherwise try gracefully retiring via the RPC
+    logger.info(
+        f"Scaling {worker_group_name} failed via the HTTP API, falling back to the Dask RPC"
+    )
+    # Dask version mismatches between the operator and scheduler may cause this to fail in any number of unexpected ways
+    with suppress(Exception):
+        comm_address = await get_scheduler_address(
+            scheduler_service_name,
+            namespace,
+        )
+        async with rpc(comm_address) as scheduler_comm:
+            return await scheduler_comm.workers_to_close(
+                n=n_workers,
+                attribute="name",
+            )
+
+    # Finally fall back to last-in-first-out scaling
+    logger.info(
+        f"Scaling {worker_group_name} failed via the Dask RPC, falling back to LIFO scaling"
+    )
+    async with kubernetes.client.api_client.ApiClient() as api_client:
+        api = kubernetes.client.CoreV1Api(api_client)
+        workers = await api.list_namespaced_pod(
+            namespace=namespace,
+            label_selector=f"dask.org/workergroup-name={worker_group_name}",
+        )
+        return [w["metadata"]["name"] for w in workers.items[:-n_workers]]
+
+
 @kopf.on.update("daskworkergroup")
 async def daskworkergroup_update(spec, name, namespace, logger, **kwargs):
     async with kubernetes.client.api_client.ApiClient() as api_client:
@@ -226,17 +274,13 @@ async def daskworkergroup_update(spec, name, namespace, logger, **kwargs):
                 f"Scaled worker group {name} up to {spec['worker']['replicas']} workers."
             )
         if workers_needed < 0:
-            service_address = await get_scheduler_address(
-                f"{spec['cluster']}-service", namespace
+            worker_ids = await retire_workers(
+                n_workers=-workers_needed,
+                scheduler_service_name=f"{spec['cluster']}-service",
+                worker_group_name=name,
+                namespace=namespace,
+                logger=logger,
             )
-            logger.info(
-                f"Asking scheduler to retire {-workers_needed} on {service_address}"
-            )
-            async with rpc(service_address) as scheduler:
-                worker_ids = await scheduler.workers_to_close(
-                    n=-workers_needed, attribute="name"
-                )
-            # TODO: Check that were deting workers in the right worker group
             logger.info(f"Workers to close: {worker_ids}")
             for wid in worker_ids:
                 await api.delete_namespaced_pod(