Mint Explainer | Can gig workers form traditional trade unions?

Among the first such set of unionized workers were the headloaders or mathadis who set up a welfare board in 1974 in Maharashtra. Later, temporary construction labourers began organizing into unions, and in 1996, India passed the Building and other Construction Workers Act. Other similar unions were set up in the 1970s and 80s for casual workers with no permanent contracts including cine workers, beedi workers, mine labourers, and fishermen.