MANILA, Philippines?The number of labor strikes and industrial conflicts in the country declined by 20 percent in the first eight months of the year compared to last year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Sunday.

There?s more good news. The total number of work stoppages between January and August this year was only four, compared to five in the same period last year.

Two of the four strikes occurred in July, while the others were called in February and March.

The strikes each lasted an average of three days. As a result of their short duration, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said that productive workdays lost declined by 79 percent compared to 2008.

Even the number of strike notices declined, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) reported.

The NCMB said 208 notices of strike were filed by workers as of Aug. 31 this year, a 21-percent decline from the 263 recorded in the first eight months of 2008.

The fewer strike notices also involved smaller numbers of workers, from 48,651 in the same period in 2008 to 44,436 so far this year.

Preventive mediation cases similarly registered a decline as new cases docketed this year numbered 329, an 11-percent drop from the 368 PM cases filed last year, the NCMB said.

Roque attributed the drop in conciliation-mediation cases to the maturing of labor and management.

He noted that labor and management groups now opted to discuss their differences on the shop floor instead of in the picket lines or the courts.