When the establishment you work for enters "liquidation" under the Bankruptcy Law, workers are not automatically paid first just for being workers. The law sets out a precise priority order — and your wages are not one item on it, but two items with very different strength.
📜 The full priority order
"In liquidation... the debt with the higher priority is satisfied before the debt with the lower priority, and the priority of debts is as follows: (a) debts secured by an in-rem guarantee. (b) secured financing. (c) an amount to the debtor's workers equal to (thirty) days' wages. (d) family maintenance ordered by law or a court judgment. (e) expenses necessary to keep the debtor's business running during the procedure. (f) the debtor's workers' prior (older) wages. (g) unsecured debts. (h) government fees, contributions, taxes and dues."
💡 The practical reading: your wages split into two different claims
Notice the gap between item (c) and item (f) — both are "workers' wages," but their ranking is far apart:
- Item (c) — your last 30 days' pay: ranks third overall, right after secured debts and secured financing. Your most recent month of salary is very strongly protected.
- Item (f) — older wage arrears: paid only after family maintenance and the operating expenses of the procedure, and just ahead of unsecured debts — far weaker than your last month's pay.
The longer you wait to claim unpaid wages, the more of what you're owed falls into the weaker category (f) instead of the strong category (c). Don't wait — file your claim as soon as you learn your employer has entered bankruptcy proceedings.
⚖️ If there isn't enough money for everyone
Under Article 198, if the proceeds from selling the estate's assets aren't enough to pay every debt at the same priority rank in full, the proceeds are distributed among those creditors proportionally (pro rata) — not on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Bankruptcy Law (Royal Decree M/50 of 1439H) — Article 196: priority order of debts
- Bankruptcy Law — Article 198: distributing proceeds among creditors of the same rank