DEBENHAMS staff who lost their jobs when the Birmingham Bullring store shut its doors for good are suing the retail giant amid claims redundancies were 'mismanaged. Birmingham's branch of the high street chain shut on May 15. Debenhams, which employed more than 20,000 people before the pandemic, sold its brand and website to online giant Boohoo for £55 million in January, but confirmed its bricks and mortar business would close for good, leading to mass redundancies. Now the last remaining Debenhams staff who lost their jobs when the Bullring store shut, are pursuing legal action against the retail giant over the way the redundancy process was managed. They join around 700 of their former colleagues nationwide, who have already instructed a law firm to secure a Protective Award on their behalf, amid allegations that the business failed to properly consult staff when making mass redundancies. A Protective Award is a payment awarded by an Employment Tribunal in cases where an employer fails to follow the correct procedure when making 20 or more redundancies. Where an Employment Tribunal finds in the favour of the employees, they will be able to access the funds via the Government Insolvency Service.