It really depends on the local laws, who receives their money first.
Having been made redundant when Monarch went bust, I can tell you from personal experience that in the UK the employee is not the main creditor. In our case the owners are preferred creditors and on paper will never recoup their losses, even with the sale of the slots. In real life, they will most likely walk away with a profit as the financing was done quite creatively.
As employees we won't get a penny of what we are owned. They owe me £100k+ but I will never see this money. Even though the last press release stated that all employees get everything they are entitled too. What they failed to mention is that they work to government limits and it is capped at £800!
I feel for the staff at Air Berlin and FlyNiki, hopefully they get treated better.