Public sector workers will have to phone their office every day if they are off sick under a government crackdown on sickness absence announced today.

Occupational health experts will be brought in to pick up early signs of problems and workers who provided self certification "sicknotes" for more than five days at a time will be challenged.

The measures were unveiled by a Whitehall task force set up to reduce the high level of sickness absence in the public sector. Public servants take an average of 10 days off sick every year, but the task force said it wanted that cut by 2.5 days.

The report followed the disclosure that staff in the Department for Work and Pensions took an average of over 12 days off sick last year at a cost of £100m, damaging services such as the Child Support Agency, pensions and jobseeking.

The task force called for checks on workers who took a lot of short-term time off and a requirement for daily phone calls to the office for workers off sick at short notice.

Many of the initiatives were already being used and pilot projects were under way to cut sick leave. Jane Kennedy, the minister for work and chairwoman of the task force, said: "Staff are a public service's most valuable asset and need to be properly supported to stay healthy.

"More needs to be done to cut the rate of public sector sickness absence and we believe this can be achieved by having the right systems in place.

"Employers should take the health of their staff as seriously as their safety, taking professional advice from GPs when necessary."

Cabinet Office minister, Ruth Kelly said: "Every modern organisation has a duty to take absence management seriously. A duty to its staff, who deserve to be treated fairly when off sick and helped to return to work when sensible to do so, and a duty to its shareholders, the taxpayer, to minimise unnecessary absence.

"The civil service is no exception here. Our recommendations constitute good modern management practice. We need to see them through and will ensure that there are processes to monitor departmental progress, and identify where further action is needed."