Order of Labour (Romania)

The Order of Labor was a decoration established in 1948 and awarded during the communist regime to those who achieved what were considered outstanding accomplishments in various fields of activity. The Order had three classes and, starting in 1949, was accompanied by the lesser decoration, the Medal of Labor.

The Order and the Medal were initially intended as material incentives in the framework of “socialist competitions.” The absence of a limit on the number of people who could be decorated with the Order or Medal meant that quite a large number of people were decorated in the 1950s. As long as these decorations were not really intended as symbols of the state’s gratitude or of honoring a particular person, but represented a means of providing certain material advantages (a lower salary tax, the right to an extra room, etc.) to certain people deemed “meritorious” by the party, this situation did not bother anyone.