diff --git a/controllers/gce/controller/utils.go b/controllers/gce/controller/utils.go
index d313097f5..192eaa414 100644
--- a/controllers/gce/controller/utils.go
+++ b/controllers/gce/controller/utils.go
@@ -668,10 +668,10 @@ func (o PodsByCreationTimestamp) Len() int      { return len(o) }
 func (o PodsByCreationTimestamp) Swap(i, j int) { o[i], o[j] = o[j], o[i] }
 
 func (o PodsByCreationTimestamp) Less(i, j int) bool {
-	if o[i].CreationTimestamp.Equal(o[j].CreationTimestamp) {
+	if o[i].CreationTimestamp.Equal(&o[j].CreationTimestamp) {
 		return o[i].Name < o[j].Name
 	}
-	return o[i].CreationTimestamp.Before(o[j].CreationTimestamp)
+	return o[i].CreationTimestamp.Before(&o[j].CreationTimestamp)
 }
 
 // setInstanceGroupsAnnotation sets the instance-groups annotation with names of the given instance groups.