Many employers believe that workers who take time off for stress-related conditions are not justified in their claims, according to a new survey.

Malcolm Bruce, trade and industry spokesman, said: "This survey highlights that when people's health suffers due to stress at work, business loses too.

"If stress at work is inhibiting productivity, this is not only an issue of exploited staff, but an issue of business performance.

"Managerial staff are not protected by the Working Time Directive like other workers are. Stressed out managers manage badly.

"If we want to get the best out of people, in whatever role they play at work, then companies must work harder with the Health and Safety Executive to make sure that stress-free workers boost business productivity."

Forum Response: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Ben Willmott, spokesman for the CIPD, said: "With stress, as with the bad back of yesteryear, we will always have those few employees who will use it as the excuse to take the odd day off.

"But some managers under pressure themselves, who have an employee who's stressed, perhaps don't have a lot of sympathy".

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

A spokesman for the IoD told ePolitix.com: "Absenteeism - particularly in the public sector - is a growing problem, and stress is increasingly sited as a cause.

"However, there now seems to be a tendency for the words 'stress' and 'pressure' to be used synonymously. All too often people talk about pressure in the workplace, equate it with stress and paint the most negative of pictures.

"Surveys often talk about stress when they're really talking about pressure, which after all, is nothing new."

Forum Response: Depression Alliance

Jim Thomson, chief executive of the Depression Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "There should be no doubt that stress is a genuine problem and one that costs industry dearly each year.

"There is plenty of evidence demonstrating that failure to acknowledge stress and deal with its causes can only exacerbate this rapidly growing problem.

"Conversely, there is very little evidence to support the claim that employees are using stress as an excuse to 'skive'.

"Those of us who work in mental health can easily recognise within this report evidence of stigma, borne of ignorance. Employers need education and support to deal with this issue and to recognise that stress and depression should be treated with equal consideration as physical illnesses."

Forum Response: Federation of Small Businesses

A spokesman for the FSB told ePolitix.com: "Employers are increasingly aware of vexatious claims, and are concerned about an area which is vaguely defined at the moment".