Arthur Birling -- more than just a mean boss?
There's a couple of scenes in this film where Arthur Birling (the family patriarch) is shown matching eyes with Eva Smith and they kind of smile at each other in a knowing way. I got the feeling when this first was shown that Arthur was having an affair with her. The eye contact and look suggested relations different than the hostile labor kind.
The film never did anything else to suggest such a relationship other than Arthur's evasive answer's to the Inspector's questions, but at that moment in the film I thought surely Arthur had been involved with her and the firing was to get rid of a sexual liability, not a labor agitator.