Staff face an uncertain Christmas as hundreds of jobs at an IT firm are threatened.
Up to 600 jobs at Capgemini could be axed, including 50 of the 200 posts based at the firm's offices in Barrington Road, Goring, Worthing.
Those affected work on a contract to manage the IT system used by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Around 3,000 staff work on the contract at Capgemini's branches in Goring, Telford and Basingstoke.
Staff will be balloted over industrial action in mid-January and discussions are underway about the type of action which could be taken. A strike is one possibility.
Chris Morrison from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) said there had been "overwhelming" support for a ballot.
The union believes compulsory redundancies are unnecessary as a large number of employees have indicated they would be happy to take voluntary redundancy.
Mr Morrison said: "The company is seeking to ensure they make a 10 per cent profit on the contract and they are somewhere short of that - though they are still making a huge profit.
"We believe a voluntary round of redundancies would go a long way towards hitting that target.
"There are a sizeable community of people who would leap at the chance.
"This would be the sensible option. It would cause far less pain and would be fairer."
He said it would cheaper for the firm to ask for voluntary redundancies, but said bosses were reluctant because they did not think they would get enough volunteers.
The announcement is the latest in a series of job cuts by companies in Sussex.
At the beginning of the month it emerged that up to 1,000 workers at the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis in Horsham could lose their jobs.
More than 300 posts at GlaxoSmithKline in Crawley and Worthing, 200 at Parker Pen in Newhaven, 180 at COSi in Littlehampton and up to 130 at South East Water in Haywards Heath could also be lost.
Redundancy is also on the cards for hundreds of workers at Brighton and Hove Council and Hastings Borough Council as the local authorities try to balance their budgets.
No-one from Capgemini was available to comment.
HM Revenue and Customs, which includes the Inland Revenue, awarded Capgemini the IT contract three years ago. At the time it was one of the world's largest IT outsourcing deals.
Capgemini work alongside Fujitsu and BT to deliver the contract, forming a body called Aspire (A Strategic Partnership for the Inland Revenue).
Fujitsu is subcontracted to manage the data services, input and output services, desktop and disaster recovery services while BT is responsible for voice support and for providing call centre solutions.
Capgemini has overall responsibility for the delivery of services.
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