Prospect representatives – holding large blank cheques – will be outside QinetiQ headquarters at 85 Buckingham Gate, London SW1 in advance of the company’s press conference, which is expected to announce an increase in QinetiQ profits for the financial year ending March 31.

QinetiQ staff are furious that the company imposed a pay freeze for 2009 while still paying bonuses to directors and senior managers. Prospect members are now being balloted on industrial action. The result of the ballot will be announced on June 1.

QinetiQ employs over 7,000 staff in the UK and operates over 40 sites with major facilities located at Farnborough in Hampshire, Malvern in Worcestershire and Boscombe Down, Wiltshire.