diff --git a/rq/handlers.py b/rq/handlers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33ac03d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rq/handlers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+import traceback
+
+from .connections import get_current_connection
+from .queue import get_failed_queue
+from .worker import Worker
+
+
+def move_to_failed_queue(job, *exc_info):
+    """Default exception handler: move the job to the failed queue."""
+    exc_string = Worker._get_safe_exception_string(traceback.format_exception(*exc_info))
+    failed_queue = get_failed_queue(get_current_connection(), job.__class__)
+    failed_queue.quarantine(job, exc_info=exc_string)
diff --git a/rq/worker.py b/rq/worker.py
index 3efcd6d..f87bc69 100644
--- a/rq/worker.py
+++ b/rq/worker.py
@@ -16,9 +16,7 @@ from datetime import timedelta
 
 from redis import WatchError
 
-from rq.compat import as_text, string_types, text_type
-
-from .compat import PY2
+from .compat import PY2, as_text, string_types, text_type
 from .connections import get_current_connection, push_connection, pop_connection
 from .defaults import DEFAULT_RESULT_TTL, DEFAULT_WORKER_TTL
 from .exceptions import DequeueTimeout, ShutDownImminentException
@@ -744,7 +742,7 @@ class Worker(object):
 
     def handle_exception(self, job, *exc_info):
         """Walks the exception handler stack to delegate exception handling."""
-        exc_string = self._get_safe_exception_string(
+        exc_string = Worker._get_safe_exception_string(
             traceback.format_exception_only(*exc_info[:2]) + traceback.format_exception(*exc_info)
         )
         self.log.error(exc_string, exc_info=True, extra={
@@ -768,11 +766,12 @@ class Worker(object):
 
     def move_to_failed_queue(self, job, *exc_info):
         """Default exception handler: move the job to the failed queue."""
-        exc_string = self._get_safe_exception_string(traceback.format_exception(*exc_info))
         self.log.warning('Moving job to {0!r} queue'.format(self.failed_queue.name))
-        self.failed_queue.quarantine(job, exc_info=exc_string)
+        from .handlers import move_to_failed_queue
+        move_to_failed_queue(job, *exc_info)
 
-    def _get_safe_exception_string(self, exc_strings):
+    @staticmethod
+    def _get_safe_exception_string(exc_strings):
         """Ensure list of exception strings is decoded on Python 2 and joined as one string safely."""
         if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
             exc_strings = [exc.decode("utf-8") for exc in exc_strings]