The number of long-term sick leave absences in the Welsh Government has jumped despite a major reduction in the number of staff, according to new figures.

Taxpayer campaigners have called for urgent action to address the issue. Elsewhere, fears were raised that a smaller number of staff is struggling to cope with increasing responsibilities.

One leading management expert warned the public sector had become “too lean and too mean”.

In 2011-12 there were 152 absences of 90 days-plus among staff in the Welsh Government, up from 130 in 2009-10.

This is despite a fall in the number of employees from 6,456 in December 2009 to 5,386 by the same month last year.

The rise in the sick rate has fuelled concerns that staff are being over-worked at a time of shrinking budgets and stretched resources.

As well as a rise in the 90 days-plus rate, there has also been a slight increase in the number of staff taking sick leave for 28 days-plus – up from 423 in 2009-10 to 425 in 2011-12.

Cary Cooper, Distinguished Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University management School, said the figures were a sign that stress and anxiety are a major problem in the public sector.

He criticised poor management and said people were working long hours for fear of being made redundant, arguing that job losses meant remaining staff were unable to cope with their new responsibilities.

He said: “The problem we have in the public sector is there are too few people doing too much. It’s too lean and too mean.”

Prof Cooper, who is president of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, said people were suffering greater job insecurity and financial worries and were now reluctant to take days off for conditions such as the flu. He argued this made it more likely they would be succumb to serious stress and anxiety and require extended periods off work.

The figures come at a time when there are fears of further redundancies in the public sector. Last November, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast there would be 710,000 public sector job losses by 2017 – 310,000 more than previously estimated.

Describing the impact on staff of the job insecurity, Prof Cooper said: “They are coming in earlier and stying later to show commitment. They don’t want to be in the next tranch of redundancies.”

Paul Davies, the Conservative AM who obtained the figures from Welsh Government permanent secretary Gillian Morgan, said: “It’s more than clear that there is an on-going problem here that needs to be closely studied at the very least. While overall civil service numbers have dropped in Wales over the last three years, the number of long-term absences have stayed relatively static, and unacceptably high.

“Thousands of working days are being lost at a time when there are increasing demands on government staff. Ministers should review existing work practices, liaise with staff representatives to identify where improvements can be made, and ensure that staff are not being unduly overworked.”

Robert Oxley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Being left to languish on long term sick isn’t fair on staff or taxpayers. The Welsh Government clearly has an urgent issue here that needs to be addressed.

“Cutting down excessive sick leave would save taxpayers a fortune.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “As a responsible employer, we are committed to providing support to improve the health and well-being of our staff. We have a number of robust health and well-being policies and procedures in place to keep people in work and to support those who

are absent due to illness.”

Across the UK, the number of days lost to sickness has been falling in recent decades. Last year 131 million days were lost, down from 178 million in 1993.

According to the Office for National Statistics, musculoskeletal problems accounted for 35 million days; 27.4 millon days were lost due to “minor illnesses” and stress, depression and anxiety were responsible for 13.3 million.

The ONS found the percentage of hours lost to sickness in the private sector was lower than in the public sector, at 1.6% and 2.6% respectively. It noted that women have more sickness absence than men and the public sector employs a higher proportion of female workers.

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