Yossi Berger was born in Poland and taken to Israel at the age of three and then to Australia at age thirteen. He attended Altona High School, Victoria until 1965, then took the Higher School Certificate by correspondence in 1975. In 1980 he gained a BSc (Hons) from Monash University majoring in Psychology and Philosophy and, in 1987 a PhD in psychology from La Trobe University. His reearch thesis centred on the maritime industry.
Berger worked variously in factories, as a truck driver, as a door-to-door bookseller and at buying fruit and vegetables for supermarkets. From 1967 to 1969, he was a trainee store manager with Coles. From 1969 to 1980 he managed, or owned a variety of delicatessen ventures. From 1981 he worked as part-time tutor in Psychology at La Trobe University and as a research assistant for the Brain-Behaviour Research Institute. In the 1980s he was employed by the Australian Council of Trades Unions as a research officer in the Occupational Health and Safety unit and then for three years as Director. Through the 1990s and beyond he served as Occupational Health and Safety Officer with the Australian Workers Union.Several works on occupational health and safety include The Hoechst Dispute as a Paradigm Shift in Occupational Health and Safety, Melbourne, Australian Worker's Union, 1991
A registered psychologist with the Victorian Psychological Council, Berger also became a member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW), editor of the national Australian Workers Union magazine Say Safety and a member of Healthwise scientific advisory committee. His poems have appeared variously in the following publications: SCOPP, The Melbourne Chronicle, Phoenix Australia, Epiphany, Poetry Monash, Lot's Wife.
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