diff --git a/kernel/printk/printk.c b/kernel/printk/printk.c
index e79439134978cf..c963ba534a784f 100644
--- a/kernel/printk/printk.c
+++ b/kernel/printk/printk.c
@@ -233,7 +233,11 @@ struct printk_log {
 	u8 facility;		/* syslog facility */
 	u8 flags:5;		/* internal record flags */
 	u8 level:3;		/* syslog level */
-};
+}
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
+__packed __aligned(4)
+#endif
+;
 
 /*
  * The logbuf_lock protects kmsg buffer, indices, counters.  This can be taken
@@ -274,11 +278,7 @@ static u32 clear_idx;
 #define LOG_FACILITY(v)		((v) >> 3 & 0xff)
 
 /* record buffer */
-#if defined(CONFIG_HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS)
-#define LOG_ALIGN 4
-#else
 #define LOG_ALIGN __alignof__(struct printk_log)
-#endif
 #define __LOG_BUF_LEN (1 << CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT)
 static char __log_buf[__LOG_BUF_LEN] __aligned(LOG_ALIGN);
 static char *log_buf = __log_buf;