JAX-WS handler chain XML files fail to be located in EAP 6

Issue

• We have a web service which is running on EAP 5. The JAX-WS handler chain configuration was set up as follows:

@WebService(serviceName = "MyService", endpointInterface = "com.sample.ws.MyService")
@SOAPBinding(...)
@HandlerChain(file = "META-INF/handler-chain.xml")
public class MyServiceImpl implements MyService {
...

• The handler-chain.xml file is located in the WEB-INF/classes/META-INF directory of the war package containing the above code.
• When I try to migrate the web service onto EAP 6, I get the following error message that considers META-INF location to be relative to the location of the annotated class, and fail to deploy it.

14:22:53,783 ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-8) MSC000001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."xxxxx.war".PARSE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."xxxxx.war".PARSE: JBAS018733: Failed to process phase PARSE of deployment "xxxxx.war"
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:123) [jboss-as-server-7.1.2.Final-redhat-1.jar:7.1.2.Final-redhat-1]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA-redhat-1.jar:1.0.2.GA-redhat-1]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA-redhat-1.jar:1.0.2.GA-redhat-1]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110) [rt.jar:1.7.0_09-icedtea]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603) [rt.jar:1.7.0_09-icedtea]
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722) [rt.jar:1.7.0_09-icedtea]
Caused by: javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException: JBAS015507: Handler chain config file com/sample/ws/META-INF/handler-chain.xml not found in ResourceRoot [root="/content/xxxxx.war/WEB-INF/classes"]
    at org.jboss.as.webservices.injection.WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.getInputStream(WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.java:158)
    at org.jboss.as.webservices.injection.WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.processHandlerChainAnnotation(WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.java:130)
    at org.jboss.as.webservices.injection.WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.processHandlerChainAnnotations(WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.java:116)
    at org.jboss.as.webservices.injection.WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.deploy(WSHandlerChainAnnotationProcessor.java:93)
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:116) [jboss-as-server-7.1.2.Final-redhat-1.jar:7.1.2.Final-redhat-1]
    ... 5 more