Speakers
Speakers
Britta Lejon is PSI's President. She was elected at PSI’s World Congress in October 2023. She has served as the President of The Union of Civil Servants (ST) in Sweden from 2012 to present, advocating for the rights and well-being of civil servants. She was also president of the National and European Administration Committee of the European region of PSI, EPSU, from 2015 to 2019.
Annie has been in public service for most of her life, having served in various positions in the National Mower and Youth Council, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Quezon City University and the House of Representatives. Deeply committed to advancing public sector unionism. She has been organizing and educating government employees all over the Philippines since 1987. She is currently the president of the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), a national umbrella federation of government workers and their unions and associations representing more than 114000 rank and file employees. Since 2002, she has also been serving as Vice President for Asia Pacific of Public Services International (PSI). She has been appointed by the Philippine president to sit as one of the labor representatives in the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council and has also been elected as the public sector union representative in the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership – Philippines. On April 28,2005 She is being appointed by President Marcos as labor sector representative to the Trabaho Para Sa Bayan Inter Agency Council. Annie has also served as official delegate and resource speaker in different regional and international conferences such as the Asian Development Bank Annual Governors’ Meeting, Global Forum on Migration and Development and the UN Conference on Reinventing Governance and Building Confidence on Government-Implementing the UN Anti-Corruption Convention (UNCAC). Widely recognized as an advocate of gender equality, she has led campaigns on Pay Equity, Occupational Safety and Health, Expanded Maternity Leave Law, ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 190 on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work including Gender-Based Violence and Harassment and many other advocacies for women’s rights and empowerment. She holds a Doctorate degree in Philosophy from the Lyceum of the Philippines University and is also a licensed Guidance Counselor.
Daniel Bertossa is PSI's General Secretary. He was elected at PSI’s World Congress in October 2023.Danny previously served as PSI’s Assistant General Secretary. He has been with PSI for over ten years, managing policy, advocacy and governance with a focus on PSI's economic policy work in trade, tax, debt and the future of quality public services. He is a strong voice for workers in the global media, contributing union perspectives for outlets such as Le Monde, The Guardian, Poder360, EuroNews, Equal Times, The Hindu, and the International Centre for Trade Union Rights Journal. Danny is a co-chair of the steering committee of the Independent Commission on Reform of International Corporate Tax (ICRICT), member of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) tax Technical Committee, member of the Centre for Research on Employment and Work (CREW) advisory board at the University of Greenwich and member of the committee of the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR).
Kate Lappin is Public Services International (PSI) Regional Secretary for the Asia & Pacific region
Maddy Northam is the Australian Capital Territory Regional Secretary for the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) which represents Commonwealth and Territory public servants. In addition to this, Maddy is the President of Unions ACT which represents over 30,000 union members across Canberra. Maddy is a PSI Executive Board Youth Titular and has used this role to push for greater inclusion of young workers, and the issues that concern them, in global union federations and the ITUC. Maddy lives in Canberra with her wife and twin babies.
Yi-Ting Yeh is a Family Medicine Attending Physician and Deputy Director at Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital. With a Master’s in Public Health from Yang-Ming University, her work focuses on home medical care, palliative care, and long-term care service integration, aiming to enhance public awareness of caregiving value through interdisciplinary collaboration. Yi-Ting is also active in labor and social movements. She serves as an Asia-Pacific member of the PSI LGBT+ Interim Steering Committee, a member representative of Ditmanson Healthcare Foundation Affiliated Enterprises Union (CYCHCU), a board member of the Awakening Foundation, and a director of the Taipei Physicians’ Union, advocating for labor rights, gender equality, and diversity in healthcare.
Sean Sweeney, Ph.D., is the Director of the International Program on Labor, Climate & Environment at the School of Labor and Urban Studies, City University of New York. He also coordinates Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) a global network of 130 unions from 43 countries. TUED advocates for a “public pathway” approach to energy transition, climate protection, and combating energy poverty.
SungHee Oh is the Director of International Affairs of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU). Before joining the KPTU, she worked for the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU) for about 10 years and was the Secretary for Human Rights and Solidarity of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan for more than 3 years. Her expertise and interests lie in quality public services, labour rights, women's rights and past human rights violations committed by the state.
Ko Tūwatawata tōku maunga Ko Whirinaki tōku awa
Ko Waikotikoti me Murumurunga tōku marae Ko Ngati Tuahiwi tōku hapū
Ko Ngati Whare, Ngai Tuhoe me Ngati Kahungungu nga Iwi
Ko Matātua te Waka
Ko Virgil Iraia tōku ingoa.
Ko au te Tumuaki mo Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. He Kaimahi au ki Te Whatu Ora.
Nui te aroha, tēna koutou katoa.
My name is Virgil Iraia, my lineage connects me to the indigenous tribes of Ngati Whare, Ngai Tuhoe and Ngati Kahungungu, which are remote isolated/urban areas in the heart of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I am the President of Aotearoa New Zealand largest union the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, commonly known as the NZPSA. I have the responsibility of representing and advocating the collective voice of NZPSA in local, regional, national and international forums.
I am one of seven children to my parents Lillian and David, a doting uncle to my niece and five nephews and on top of that I’m a health worker. Advocacy and Representation for the collective has always a core part of who I am.
He aha te mea nui o tenei ao? He tangata! He tangata, He tangata!
What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people
...’anō te ātaahua o te nohotahitanga a nga teina me nga tuakana i raro i te whakaaro kotahi.’
…’such is the power of whanaungatanga, the strength in unity and working together to achieve things in common.’
Ko Whakapunake tōku maunga Ko Wairoa tōku awa
Ko Takitimu tōku marae
Ko Ngāi Te Apatu tōku hapū
Ko Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Tuwahretoa me Ngāti Ruanui ōku iwi Ko Joanna Houston tōku ingoa.
He uri ahau nō ngā waka Ko Te Arawa, Takitimu me Aotea.
He Tumuaki Tuarua Māori mo te Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi me Tuakana o Te Runanga o Nga Toa Awhina o Te Pukenga Here Tikanga Mahi tōku mahi.
Tēnei te mihi ki a koutou katoa
My name is Joanna Houston, and I whakapapa to the tribes Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Ruanui in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am the Vice President Māori of Te Pukenga Tikanga Mahi| The Public Services Association New Zealand, and the Tuakana (Convenor) of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Awhina of the PSA, representing our Māori members who are tāngata whenua (indigenous to Aotearoa New Zealand).
I am a mum to five adult children and have been happily married for 25 years. Advocating for the indigenous rights of Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a core focus of my working life as a public servant in New Zealand.
At a time in our history, when our environment is demanding our attention and neoliberalism seeks to divide us, all we have, is our unity. And that is more than enough for us to realise a prosperous future.
Manoranjan Pegu is currently the Country Program Director, Solidarity Center Sri Lanka Office. He has over 15 years of experience working with the global labour movement. He has a PhD in Sociology and writes extensively on issues of labour, tribes and nationalism. His work has appeared in The Caravan, The Hindu, The Quint, Outlook, Scroll, The Wire, and Newslaundry, among others. His forthcoming co-authored book, Tribal Question and Assamese Identity: Poetics and Politics of Indigeneity, is a novel attempt to critically situate the figure of the tribal to analyse identity, language/nationalism and caste question in contemporary Assam.
Emeritus Prof. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury is Special Assistant to the Hounarble Chief Advisor (Ministry of Finance), Government of Bangladesh. He also worked at United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in Bangkok as Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division (July 2012-Aug. 2014) and Director of Statistics Division (Sept. 2014-May 2015). Previously, he was Professor of Economics at the University of Western Sydney (2001-2012) and taught also at the Universities of Singapore (1983-87), New England (Australia, 1987-92) and Manitoba (Canada, 1978-83). He was the founding managing editor of the Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy (1995-2008), where he remains on its editorial board as a co-editor. He has published widely on East and Southeast Asia, and on macro-development, labour market, and income distribution issues. He holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba (1983) and honours and master’s degrees from Jahangirnagar University of Bangladesh (1976 and 1978)
Dr. Christina J. Colclough is a renowned thought leader in the future of work and the politics of digital technology. As the founder of The Why Not Lab, she champions the protection of human rights, freedoms, and autonomy in the digital age. With a strong background in labor market research and leadership within the global labor movement, she has been instrumental in shaping policies and strategies that advocate for workers’ voices and public services. Notably, she authored the union movement’s first principles on Workers’ Data Rights and the Ethics of AI, establishing herself as a key figure in ethical digital transformation.Christina is also a highly sought-after speaker and trainer, having delivered over 400 speeches and workshops in just three years. Her dedication to improving workers’ digital rights has earned her a place in the Hall of Fame of the world’s most brilliant women in AI Ethics. She holds several trusted positions, including Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK, member of UNESCO’s #Women4EthicalAI Platform, the OECD One AI Expert Group, and affiliation with FAOS at Copenhagen University. In 2021, she also served on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership on AI, further solidifying her influence in shaping ethical digital policies worldwide.
Ramya Kannan has been a journalist with The Hindu for 28 years now. Throughout the period, she has been employed at The Hindu, India's national newspaper, in various capacities, and now has come to straddle two positions - health editor and head of the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry bureaus. She has a deep experience in health and development reporting and prides herself on being a true Chennaiite and a resident of Tamil Nadu, with involvement in various forms of reporting, including long form articles. More recently, she has curated ebooks on health topic and one coffee table book on the Chennai Corporation. She believes in interventions, through the media, particularly those that elevate the lives of disadvantaged people.
Dr Fiona Macdonald is Policy Director, Industrial and Social with the Centre for Future Work. Her PhD in Political Science is from the University of Queensland. She also holds a Master of Social Science. Previously Fiona worked as an industrial relations academic at RMIT University in Melbourne and at the University of South Australia and she is currently an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow in the College of Business and Law at RMIT. She has a background in research in the community and vocational education and training sectors and has worked with trade unions over many years. Fiona has written extensively on women, work and industrial relations, including on social care employment, insecure work, wage theft, gig work and contracting, equal pay, collective bargaining and low-paid workers. In 2021, her book Individualising Risk: Paid Care Work in the New Gig Economy was published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Paul is from Canberra, Australia and has worked for the Commonwealth Government for over 28 years. He has extensive experience across several key portfolios including Finance, Industrial Relations, and Attorney-General’s. Paul has worked on the development of key Commonwealth legislation, provided policy advice to Senior Officials, and administered multi-million-dollar grant programs. As a committed unionist, Paul is a member of the Community & Public Sector Union and serves as a workplace Delegate and Section Councillor where he has successfully led initiatives to improve workplace conditions and advocate for employee rights.
Outside of work, Paul is the Vice President of Physical Disability Australia, the national peak body representing people living with physical disability. In his late twenties, Paul was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a condition which has led to multiple joint replacements. The experience of developing disability highlighted the difficulties that many people with disability have in finding and maintaining work which drives Paul’s particular interest in disability employment.
Paul holds a Masters Degree from the University of New South Wales and was an Honorary Associate in the Centre for Disability Research and Policy at The University of Sydney between 2017-2024.
Asad Ur Rehman Aasi is a dedicated trade unionist and advocate for workers' rights in Pakistan. He has been organizing workers and fighting against the privatization of public services for more than 13 years. He is the General Secretary of the Sanitary Workers Federation Punjab and the Vice president of the Public Sector Employees Federation of Pakistan (PSEFP) and of the Deputy General Secretary Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF). These organizations represent thousands of public sector and informal workers in Pakistan.
Asad has played a key role in testing the effects of privatization in Pakistan’s municipal and public health sectors. He led national efforts to show how outsourcing affects job security, working conditions, and public responsibility, especially in the health and sanitation sectors.
He was a primary organizer of the Joint Protest of Community Health and Polio Workers, which brought together hundreds of female workers from several provinces to demand recognition, rights, and protection from the instability caused by privatization.
Through his website, workersactivism.com, to document and promote grassroots initiatives, union fights, and the problems workers in both the formal and informal economies face.
Fathimath Zimna is the Executive Board Member for South Asia at Public Services International and the co-founder and elected General Secretary of the Maldives Health Professionals Union (MHPU). She has been a driving force behind MHPU’s strategic planning and policy development and has played a central role in advancing labor legislation and policy reforms in the Maldives. As a representative on the Minimum Wage Board, she was instrumental in securing the country’s first minimum wage in the year 2022 and led efforts to establish a new public sector pay framework for healthcare workers in 2023. Globally, she has been a vocal advocate for workers’ rights, focusing on issues including climate justice, gender equality, labor migration, and equitable access to quality public services. She holds a Master of Public Administration and was a recipient of the first PSIRU Summer School program. She has been a speaker and moderator in various national and international sessions on labor rights, occupational safety and health, quality public services and social justice.
Victor G. Chiong is the President Emeritus & Secretary-General of the Alliance of Government Workers in the Water Sector (AGWWAS), a federation of public sector labor unions in the local water districts (LWDs). With 40 years of experience as a trade unionist, he has worked alongside the executive board of the national federation.
In September 2019, he conferred a Juris Doctor (JD) from his Alma Mater. He specializes in labor education, watershed management, and educating other water district employees on their democratic rights, including the right to organize, collective negotiation, and leadership, as well as the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation. His advocacy includes trade union rights, pro-poor projects, consumer welfare, promoting family well-being, and protection of watershed areas.
His leadership roles include
- Chairman, Board of the Directors, Banawan Consumers Cooperative, July 2023 to present.
- Project Coordinator of Public Services International (PSI) Southeast Asia Region on the Philippines-Indonesia Water Project, March 2020 to December 31, 2022.
- Presidential Appointee as a Member of the Board of Administrators, National Electrification Administration (NEA), Head Office, Quezon City, Philippines, May 2015 to May 2017.
- Consultant/Lecturer with NEA Administrator Francisco G. Silva of the National Solidarity of Electric Cooperatives Labor Unions, July 1992 to December 31, 2018.
- Convenor of the Steering Committee of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Social Dialogue in the Philippine Water Utility Sector in October 2009.
Over the years, he has participated in various international conventions, conferences, and seminars, advocating for several initiatives and serving his country and people. He is known as a positive and tireless force in the workplace, inspiring others to work hard and succeed. His daily inspiration comes from his wife, children, grandsons, and granddaughters.
Publications
Chiong, V.G., A.A. Almeria, B.B. Dargantes and H.P. Dargantes. 2013. Five Philippine Water Districts Say NO to the Asian Development Bank.
Dargantes, B.B., Chiong, V.G, H. Dargantes and E. Mira. 2014. Quasi-public: water districts in the Philippines. In McDonald, D.A. and G. Ruiters (eds.) Rethinking Corporatization and Public Services in the Global South. Zed Books. New York. pp.164-184.
Dargantes, B.B. Chiong, V.G., H.P. Dargantes y E.B. Mira. 2015. Cuasi público: distritos de agua en Filipinas. En McDonald, D.A. Servicios públicos en el Sur Global: Mirada crítica a nuevas formas de gestión. Clave Intelectual, S.L. Madrid. pp. 221-248.
Dargantes, B.B., V.G. Chiong, J.O. Quitorio, A.A.N. Perez, A.N. Villalon. Public bank–public water collaboration in the Philippines. What potential for scaling up?. In T. Marois, D.A. McDonald, & S. Spronk (eds). Public Banks and Public Water in the Global South. Routledge. London. p.p. 217-246.