diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/ufoLib/__init__.py b/Lib/fontTools/ufoLib/__init__.py
index 61b034747..b3a546bf0 100755
--- a/Lib/fontTools/ufoLib/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/ufoLib/__init__.py
@@ -1323,8 +1323,6 @@ class UFOWriter(UFOReader):
 			for layerName in layerOrder:
 				if layerName is None:
 					layerName = DEFAULT_LAYER_NAME
-				else:
-					layerName = tostr(layerName)
 				newOrder.append(layerName)
 			layerOrder = newOrder
 		else:
diff --git a/Tests/ufoLib/UFO3_test.py b/Tests/ufoLib/UFO3_test.py
index cff780626..3bc98a321 100644
--- a/Tests/ufoLib/UFO3_test.py
+++ b/Tests/ufoLib/UFO3_test.py
@@ -4138,8 +4138,7 @@ class UFO3WriteLayersTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 			]
 		)
 		writer = UFOWriter(self.ufoPath)
-		# if passed bytes string, it'll be decoded to ASCII unicode string
-		writer.writeLayerContents(["public.default", "layer 2", b"layer 1"])
+		writer.writeLayerContents(["public.default", "layer 2", "layer 1"])
 		path = os.path.join(self.ufoPath, "layercontents.plist")
 		with open(path, "rb") as f:
 			result = plistlib.load(f)
@@ -4149,7 +4148,7 @@ class UFO3WriteLayersTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 			["layer 1", "glyphs.layer 1"],
 		]
 		self.assertEqual(expected, result)
-		for layerName, directory in result:
+		for layerName, _ in result:
 			assert isinstance(layerName, str)
 
 # -----