(1) Secondly, there is the argument that the country would be far better off buying the kit for the armed services from the best supplier - of whatever nationality - than featherbedding the defence sector with soft contracts.(2) Fire-fighter feather-bedding is no more surprising here than it would be in any other union.(3) Amid a barrage of criticism from the public about featherbedding and overmanning, the country's civil service is being forced to streamline and reform.(4) Despite such feather-bedding , a huge proportion of local government staff retire early on health grounds.(5) As time went by, he became increasingly irritated by the rampant featherbedding he discovered.(6) The Treasury has also announced plans to employ an extra 210,000 over the next three years so that, by election year 2006, we can expect the state payroll to be featherbedding 5.5 million voters.(7) Hand in hand with that was the emphasis placed upon improving performance, and, of course, undermining the tenure system which had played such a large part in the feather-bedding .(8) Workforces were grossly inflated, and there was appalling productivity, and feather-bedding all round.
