Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, traditionally defined an "industrial dispute" as a dispute between employers and workmen, employers and employers, or workmen and workmen, connected with employment or conditions of labour. Initially, a dispute involving a single workman was not considered an industrial dispute unless espoused by a trade union or a number of workmen.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
This position was changed by the insertion of Section 2A into the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, via an amendment in 1965.
Section 2A is a deeming provision. It states that where an employer discharges, dismisses, retrenches, or otherwise terminates the services of an individual workman, any dispute or difference between that workman and his employer connected with, or arising out of, such discharge, dismissal, retrenchment, or termination shall be deemed to be an industrial dispute.
This allows an individual workman to raise a dispute directly without it being sponsored or espoused by a trade union. Therefore, such a dispute is legally treated as an "industrial dispute".