David Jones's future is in question ahead of Christmas. ( ABC News: Fletch Yeung )
Australian retailer David Jones has been placed into receivership.
The 188-year-old department store's collapse comes after negotiations with key landlord Westfield broke down.
The department store's chief executive is addressing staff this morning at the company's Melbourne headquarters.
The retailer is behind on rental payments and its collapse will leave staff and suppliers such as fashion brands in the dark.
It is expected to rationalise store numbers, with it currently having 38 sites.
The union that represents retail workers, the Shop, Distributive and Allied (SDA) Employees Association, said its immediate focus was on keeping as many people in jobs as possible.
National secretary Gerard Dwyer said the SDA was seeking to "protect and prioritise" the legal and financial entitlements of any workers affected by redundancies.
The union said it was pursuing two key objectives: preserving jobs wherever possible, and ensuring workers received all entitlements owed to them if positions were lost.
Mr Dwyer said the SDA welcomed the federal government's payday super reforms, arguing they would help protect workers from losing up to three months of unpaid superannuation in the event of a company collapse.
