NetBackup 8.1 VMware - snapshot fails for invalid characters in path

I upgraded my test domain to version 8.1 last week and have been testing. During my tests with VMware (ESXi 5.5 environment), the jobs were constantly failing with error 4277: Virtual machine path contains unsupported characters

2017 6:58:28 PM - Info bpbrm (pid=13144) INF - vmwareLogger:  Creating snapshot for vCenter server VCENTER.FQDN, ESX host ESX-HOST.FQDN, BIOS UUID 42060caf-2365-be65-2c86-a545dfd0bb93, Instance UUID 5006cb26-5138-26d9-b173-04dc04fa1614, Display Name RHEL6-v7, Hostname RHEL6-CLIENT.FQDN 
24-Nov-2017 6:58:28 PM - Critical bpbrm (pid=13144) from client RHEL6-CLIENT.FQDN: FTL - vSphere_freeze: File path contains unsupported characters ([datastore_label_10:12] RHEL6-v7/RHEL6-v7.vmdk).
24-Nov-2017 6:58:38 PM - Critical bpbrm (pid=13144) from client RHEL6-CLIENT.FQDN: FTL - vfm_freeze: method: VMware_v2, type: FIM, function: VMware_v2_freeze

NB: The 10:12 at the tail end is a reminder for VM admins for know which SAN LUN is being used.

Partial detailed status is copied above. After checking other things, I renamed the datastore lable from "datastore_label_10:12" to "datastore_label:1012", and tried a backup again. The backup was successful. This behaviour is in accordance to VMware requirements (invalid characters list).

However, backup for the same VM using NetBackup 8.0 (and earlier 7.7.3) works fine even with the colon existing in datastore path.

So, how do I understand this behaviour:

• New bug in NetBackup 8.1?
• Bug fixed in NetBackup 8.1? (so that it conforms to VMware requirements)

PS: Spent 3+ hours with Veritas support on Friday with no help at all!