Union members at one of the biggest employers in Sussex are being sent ballot papers to vote on industrial action over pay conditions.

Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU) claims staff are regularly working overtime and are badly paid compared to others in the sector.

Officials have also complained that 9,000 staff did not receive an annual pay increase this year.

It has proposed that members in affected pay scales begin a work-to-rule system that could affect branch opening hours and slow down customer service.

If given the go-ahead, the protest could begin by the end of next month and could affect 1,750 staff in Sussex.

Lloyds TSB has major bases in Brighton and Worthing, at which 60 per cent of affected staff are estimated to be LTU members.

Both full-time and part-time workers will be balloted.

The action would not affect the 1,000 staff at Lloyds TSB's private banking centre in Haywards Heath, people working for subsidiary firm Cheltenham & Gloucester or workers in IT and sales because they are on different pay scales.

LTU is sending out 30,000 ballot papers which need to be returned by June 30. The result is expected early next month.

A preliminary ballot in April received replies from about 13,000 members, of which 96 per cent rejected the current pay position.

Steve Tatlow, LTU's assistant general secretary, said: "We are expecting a strong vote in favour.

"Lloyds TSB has left staff with no option but to vote on taking industrial action. Staff have now reached the point where, quite simply, enough is enough.

"Staff regularly complain that they are pressurised into working long hours and to meet stretching targets by promoting lending, insurance and other bank products, whilst at the same time either having their pay frozen for years on end or receiving below-inflation pay increases.

"This cannot continue."

The LTU is also concerned that thousands more jobs may be transferred to India by the end of the year.

It says Brighton is particularly vulnerable because turnover and salaries are slightly higher than elsewhere in the UK.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB said the company would do all it could to minimise disruption to customers. She added that this year 72 per cent of staff received a pay increase of 3.5 per cent or more.

She said: "Basic pay is one part of the package. They also have up to four per cent in a cash sum or in benefits as well a share scheme which equates to three per cent."

The spokeswoman said those who did not receive a pay rise included new starters and people who had been promoted during the year.