What is Featherbedding ?
‘Featherbedding’ refers to the practice of making processes or tasks in such a manner which requires more employees to complete. It helps in employing more people which helps in decreasing the overall unemployment.
It is mostly done by unions to increase the number of people employed. Common featherbedding practices include duplication of tasks or making the processes inefficient so that more people are required to perform it effectively.
It is mostly as a protection against modernisation or digitisation of the office, which would result in efficient machines and computers replacing workers. However, the unions find themselves at odds with the company when they try to implement it. Hence, it is mostly viewed with contempt.