This is the case for the former employees of the now-closed Royal Mail Hotel. Owed thousands of dollars in superannuation and given no indication when or even if it is ever likely to be paid, Lisa Radnell and Deb Hewitt are two of the 10 workers from the pub who have been left financially adrift.

They are still not sure if their wages have been paid properly, or if they are owed backpay as well, so poorly was the 150-year-old Sebastopol institution managed.

Unable to secure their entitlements, Lisa Radnell has led some of those workers to open a new venture, taking over the bistro of the Nerrina Tavern.

But their bitterness at the way they were treated by the Royal Mail licensees remains. And for Lisa Radnell, its more painful because she felt she was a friend of the RMH licence company director, Tanya Farrell.

Its a courageous and heartening move to try and open this bistro, Radnell says. It gives the former Royal Mail staff an opportunity to maintain some kind of income in the face of loss. Which, when youre facing huge medical bills, is crucial.

Radnell has mixed connective tissue disorder, which has caused interstitial lung disease. Her immune system is at war with itself. Her teeth have fallen out; she has lupus.

Im probably going to die from it, she says.

And Tanya knew how sick I was. I was going to have a lung biopsy the weekend before the hotel closed. I cancelled it, because I needed the money from working. I was always in hospital, having chemo treatment. It really, really hurt the way she just closed it up.

Basically Farrell told us to suck it up and move on, says Deb Hewitt.

Were both single mums. It was our only income. Even then, wed get paid one week and not the next, then double the week after. So the tax...

Were putting our energy into this place now, says Lisa Radnell.

Hopefully we can make something good of it.