Melisa R. Serrano is Dean and Professor 12 at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations of the University of the Philippines in Diliman.  She holds a Ph.D. in Labour Studies from the University of Milan, an M.A. in Labour Policies and Globalisation from the University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics and law, and a Master of Industrial Relations from the University of the Philippines. Dr. Serrano’s research focuses on collective representation of workers in informal and non-standard employment and the transformation of trade unions amidst changes in the world of work. Her research has been published as academic journal articles, books and book chapters, and working papers.

She is the recipient of the three-year cycle One UP Professorial Chair Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research and for Outstanding Research and Public Service since the award’s inception at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 2016, the UP International Publication Award for various years, and the UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair Award and UP Diliman Centennial Faculty Grant for various years.

Dr. Serrano has conducted extensive field research not only in the Philippines but also in other Asian countries, including ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam), Hongkong, Japan, and South Korea. Before joining UP, she was a high school teacher for two years.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

•  International Labour Office. (2025). Innovative Approaches Taken by Workers’ Organizations to Drive Formalization: By Organizing, Representing and Providing Services to Workers in the Informal Economy. Geneva: ILO. (Attribution of authorship on page iv). 

•  Xhafa, Edlira and Melisa R. Serrano. (2025). “Collective representation of precarious workers: what has the Decent Work Agenda got to do with it?”. In Madeleine Moore, Christoph Scherrer and Marcel van der Linden (eds.) The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, pp. 448-460.

• Serrano, Melisa R. and Edlira Xhafa. (2024). “Industrial relations in micro and small enterprises: patterns, trends and prospects.” ILO Working Paper 129. Geneva: International Labour Office. 

• Xhafa, Edlira and Melisa R. Serrano. (2024). “Workers in Informal Employment Organising and Acting Collectively: The Role of Trade Unions.” GLU Working Paper No. 59 (June 2024). Berlin: Global Labour University - Freunde und Förderer e.V.
  
  

• Serrano, Melisa R. and Mary Leian C. Marasigan. (2024). “Trade union engagements on the SDGs and union revitalization in five Asian countries.” ILO Working Paper 119 (July 2024). Geneva: International Labour Organization. 

• Schmalz, Stefan, Victoria Basualdo, Melisa Serrano, Kurt Vandaele, and Eddie Webster. (2023). “Varieties of platform unionism: a view from the Global South on workers’ power in the digital economy. Work in the Global Economy 3(2): 201–224.  

• Certeza, Ramon A., Melisa R. Serrano, and Verna Dinah Q. Viajar. (2022). “Solidarity on multiple scales: repression in the Philippines.” In Calire Cerruti (ed.) Labour Organising under Authoritarian Regimes. Baden-Baden Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, pp. 103-112. 

• Serrano, Melisa R. and Verna Dinah Q. Viajar, (2022). Transformative Strategies Towards Gender Equality in Trade Unions. Kathmandu: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Nepal Office Gender Justice Hub Asia.

• Serrano, Melisa R. and Mary Leian C.Marasigan. (2022). “Workplace Health Protocols Compliance in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines.” Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations 39: 286-311.

• Basualdo, Victoria, Hugo Dias, Mirko Herberg, Stefan Schmalz, Melisa Serrano, and Kurt Vandaele. (2021, October). Building Workers’ Power in Digital Capitalism: Old and New Labour Struggles. Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.