The shipyard which built the Titanic is set to go into administration, putting 130 jobs at risk.
Harland and Wolff, which built the majority of the White Star Line’s ships, is facing closure after its trouble-hit Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer.
Workers have been protesting at the site for a week in a bid to save one of Northern Ireland’s most historic brands, which is due to formally cease trading at 5.15pm on Monday.
The shipbuilder, whose famous yellow cranes dominate the Belfast skyline, employed more than 30,000 people during Belfast's industrial heyday, but now the workforce only numbers around 125.
Famed for building the doomed Titanic, which sank on its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg, Harland and Wolff was one of the UK's key industrial producers during the Second World War, supplying almost 150 warships.
Despite workers pleading with the Government to rescue the business, they have declined to intervene, insisting the issue is a commercial one.
Workers are due to meet this afternoon when they will decide whether to continue the occupation and prevent administrators accessing the site.
They will also meet DUP leader Arlene Foster at Stormont to discuss the situation.
Officials insist that EU State Aid rules limit the scope to offer financial support through public funds.
Barry Reid, shop steward with the GMB union and a Harland and Wolff steel worker, questioned the contention that EU state aid rules prevented Government intervention.
"It's a waiting game today, we are waiting to hear news," he said.
"The Government keeps quoting European law - that's all we get out of them, European law. It's very strange when on October 31 we are out of Europe, so why are they hiding behind European law when they don't want to believe in European law?”
