New instant dismissal plans - bad for staff, good for business?

Getty

The Fawcett Society spelled out this week how George Osborne's austerity cuts are threatening to reverse decades of hard-won progress on equality for women. It doesn't stop there: he also wants to turn back the clock on employees' rights.

In a recent speech to the EEF manufacturers' organisation, the chancellor urged employers to back US-style government proposals that would make it lawful for about 4.5 million small businesses to sack employees on the spot.