Jobs East operates via a voluntary board of management and five working groups that address various priorities across the region. These groups comprise of senior representation from local business, government and education and training institutions. The working groups are Mature Age, Small Business, Youth, Industry and Rural.

In recent years Jobs East has focused on the practical issues confronting older workers in the Eastern region of Melbourne. The work has revealed issues of significance that need to be considered at a national level. Key amongst these considerations is the potential effect on Australian industry of demographic changes that reflect the ageing of the workforce.

In March 1998, The Jobs East Mature Age Working Group completed major research into the issues surrounding the displacement of older workers, culminating in a report titled Profiting from Maturity.

This has led to the development of the Australian Employers Convention, a three year initiative from 1999 - 2001. The aim of the Convention is to encourage the Australian Business Community to question its current human resource practices relating to the recruitment, retention, training and retirement of older workers, and to obtain a commitment from industry to change behaviour through the promotion of best practice.

A National Conference will be held in each year of the Convention. As 1999 is the International Year of the Older Person (IYOP) the first conference of the Convention is being conducted under the auspice of the IYOP.

A number of research projects are being conducted in this first year of the Convention. They include:

• the economic implications for business of maintaining a balanced age workforce;
• age discrimination in Australia and its use and effectiveness;
• an assessment of the availability of Tabour across age groups, occupations and industries beyond 2000;
• an assessment of the productive capacity of employees aged 45 plus;
• a review of the overseas policy responses to older workers.

Phone :	03 9873 8377
Fax :	03 9873 8149
Email :	rolland@jobseast.asn.au
Contact :	Ms. Louise Rolland Executive Director

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