More than 13,000 WA public servants are sitting on at least two years worth of annual leave, raising concerns about their health as well as the huge financial liability to the State.

As Premier Mark McGowan moves to crack down on the practice of banking up leave, figures obtained by the Opposition show the balance of accumulated annual leave is skewed heavily towards entitlements of eight weeks or more.

The figures show that, as of June 30, 13,559 public servants were owed at least eight weeks holiday, a liability to the State of almost $290 million.

There were a further 4811 government staff who had amassed between seven and eight weeks annual leave — an exposure of $63.6 million — and 5739 with $69 million owing.

Of those agencies with the biggest extended annual leave liabilities, the top six were all within the health portfolio.

Shadow government accountability minister Tjorn Sibma said it was alarming so many staff were not taking their holidays and suggested they were worried about their job security or too busy.

Mr Sibma said a failure by public servants to take annual leave was not only a health risk for them but a potential problem for the people they served.

He suggested the Government focus on reducing leave balances before cutting services to improve the Budget, and holding agency heads to targets.

“We have seen serious cuts to frontline services and massive increases to household fees and charges since the McGowan Government was elected 18 months ago,” he said. “Why should the community continue to carry the burden when there is so much fat and inefficiency within the public system?”

Mr McGowan said the figures were recorded before his policy came into full effect and “it will take some time” for leave balances to decline.

Under the policy, announced in April, public servants are limited to accruing eight weeks annual leave before being asked to take time off in a bid to standardise entitlements across the Government.