Now the health and safety experts wilt under pressure and take time off with stress

But the job seems to be too much for the health and safety experts themselves as droves are taking time off - with stress.

Hundreds of officials are calling in sick, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has admitted that more than one in five sick days taken by its staff is blamed on stress.

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The cost runs to more than £500,000 a year for those missing with stress and almost the same again for absences with "symptoms ill defined."

The figures follow the agency's long-running campaign threatening businesses with heavy fines or prosecution if they fail to safeguard workers from pressure.

The problem has become so bad that the HSE has started a drive to cut the amount of time taken off, particularly by women.

The campaign appears to be based on encouraging managers to take a tougher line with workers pleading stress.

Tim Beaumont, an adviser at the HSE, warned its directors in December that managers did not want to have "difficult discussions" with staff over poor attendance. The agency risked damaging its reputation if it did not deal with absent staff, he said.

A report prepared for the organisation added that "many feel the HSE's management of stress is inadequate."

Business leaders said health and safety inspectors should examine their own troubles before lecturing others.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "They have been hoisted by their own petard.

"There is good stress and bad stress. A lot of employees thrive on good stress. They enjoy working to deadlines and see success as a route to promotion. We need to put the brakes on the stress bandwagon."

Stress has been a rapidly rising cause of sickness from work, replacing bad backs as the main cause of absence.

In total, more than five million working days a year are lost to complaints of stress. The HSE has told firms to treat it as seriously as industrial accidents and injuries.

Last year, the agency lost 8.9 working days a year for each worker to sickness. This is just below the public sector average of 9.4 but above the private sector average of 7.

In total, sickness among the 3,500 HSE staff cost the taxpayer £3.9million.