STRIKE action could hit a Malvern firm which employs more than 2,000 workers.

Staff at the defence company QinetiQ will vote on whether to take to the picket line after union negotiations over a payfreeze ended in deadlock.

Prospect, which represents about a third of the Malvern workers, had been in talks with the company since the freeze was announced last month Members will now be balloted about possible courses of industrial action, including a strike, with the results expected to be announced on Monday, June 1.

Yesterday QinetiQ said it planned to axe 400 jobs.

The announcements came in the same week the company revealed its preliminary results for the last financial year. These showed the firm’s revenue increased from £1,336 million in 2008 to £1,617.3 million in 2009, a rise of 18 per cent. In the same period, underlying profits before tax increased 19 per cent, from £109 million to £130.2 million.

David Luxton, the national secretary for the union Prospect, said: “QinetiQ’s justification for its actions do not hold up to close scrutiny. It continues to be a highly profitable company both internationally and in the UK with a backlog of secured work worth £5.4 billion.”

He questioned the decision to pay bonus entitlements to the firm’s directors and senior managers.

“If they are to be rewarded for performance for the previous 12 months, then why should the same principle not apply to all QinetiQ employees?,” he said.

David Bishop, spokesman for QinetiQ, which is based in St Andrew’s Road, said: “We’re extremely disappointed by the decision taken by the national executive committee of the trade union and are committed to continuing constructive discussions on pay.

“Our decision not to award a blanket inflationary annual pay increase is the right one in the current economic circumstances.”

He said the company would be increasing the pay of its highest performing employees, as well as its apprentices, and would also be introducing a profit share scheme in this financial year.