A report by the British Safety Council says that one manager in five does not believe more should be done to tackle stress.

The figure for the South East is one in ten.

The council interviewed more than 600 members on the causes and extent of workplace stress.

While most said more should be done to tackle the problem, via further legislation if necessary, a significant minority is opposed to treating stress as a health and safety issue.

Sir Neville Purvis, director general of of the SBC, said: "These organisations would sack people rather than examine the reasons for their illness.

"They feel it has nothing to do with work and workers and the Government uses health and safety regulations as a stick with which to beat employers over the head.

""While we and eight out of ten of our members nationally can't agree with them on this point, it is important to note almost a fifth of participants in our survey are deeply entrenched opponents of further regulation in this area."

Typical comments from these managers include:

"Most of the people who suffer stress see it as a way of being signed off sick."

"Stress is the mental equivalent to backache."

"It is too easy these days to blame everyone else for one's own faults."

The survey noted there was a difference between stress and pressure.

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