A major employer is to axe a tenth of its Sussex staff as part of what union officials have called a "brutal" national cull.

Norwich Union has announced plans to shed 100 positions at its Worthing office and 4,000 jobs across the UK by the end of 2007.

Half the affected employees, including all those in Worthing, will be forced to take compulsory redundancy.

Norwich Union, at The Warren, is one of Worthing's biggest employers, with 1,020 workers.

The job losses will affect those in IT, whose work will be contracted out to other firms.

Dave Fleming, national officer for Amicus, strongly condemned the decision and the fact that staff had not been informed by their employer.

He said: "This absolutely brutal and compulsory job cuts and offshoring will not be accepted by us or our members.

"This is a betrayal of Norwich Union's long serving workforce who have woken up to news in the media that their jobs are going.

"The fact that they are offshoring half the work and sub-contracting some of that will have service implications for customers as well as staff.

"They are treating their staff with contempt and clearly have more regard for their shareholder profits than their UK workforce."

Mr Fleming said he understood a total of 1,700 jobs will be offshored to India.

He said the union, which has an average membership of 20 to 30 per cent, would fight for jobs to be lost through voluntary redundancy and natural wastage.

Norwich Union's parent company Aviva also plans to close the offices at its 107 BSM driving schools by December, 2007, including the one in Warren Road, Brighton, where six jobs will go. Driving lessons will instead be booked by phone and on the internet.

A spokesman for Norwich Union said the firm remained committed to keeping its Worthing site.

He said £2.5 million was being set aside nationally to provide career advice to those losing their jobs.

Patrick Snowball, Norwich Union's chief executive, said the cuts were required because of industry changes and increasing reliance on the internet.

He said: "We recognise that tough decisions such as these are difficult for the people affected but they are absolutely necessary.

"We will look for every opportunity to redeploy staff in new roles and we will ensure those affected get specialist career advice."

Norwich Union is Britain's second-largest motor insurer, covering one in seven UK motorists.

Last month it announced plans to raise premiums by between six and 40 per cent.

Also in August. Aviva said its half-year profits had risen by 27 per cent due to a pick-up in the UK pensions market.

More than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Sussex in the last decade to competition from Europe and Asia.

Earlier this year, manufacturing company Eurotherm Limited, which employs 200 people in Durrington, Worthing, announced plans to move much of its manufacturing operation to eastern Europe.

In January BOC Edwards said it would move one -fifth of its Crawley-based workforce to Asia or eastern Europe.

Last year Lloyds TSB announced plans to transfer 65 jobs from Sussex to India, American Express said it would move 188 jobs from Burgess Hill to New Delhi and American Express transferred 123 jobs from Sussex House in Burgess Hill to India and 65 to a finance centre in the US.

In October 2004 insurance giant Royal and Sun Alliance, which employs about 1,000 people in Horsham, said it was cutting 1,100 jobs by moving call centre work to India.