A coffee cart employee who was wrongly sacked under the 90-day trial period has been awarded more than $10,000 compensation after the Employment Relations Authority ruled in her favour.

The employee, Yanina Mendez, had worked at Retro Espresso for two months when she lost her job.

The company operates a cafe and a few standalone coffee caravan outlets at Auckland airport.

After applying for the job, Mendez was interviewed by Retro manager Joe Joslin, who discussed terms and conditions of employment with her.

She began work on April 24 following training but was not provided with a contract for the first 10 or so days, despite requesting it several times from Joslin.

Once she was provided with a contract, she and Joslin both signed it.

Issues arose two months later when Mendez advised cafe owner Brent Gore on a Friday night that she was sick and not able to come to work the next day.

Gore said he tried to contact Mendez at various times over that weekend but was unable to reach her.

When he did contact her on the Monday by phone, he advised her that she had been dismissed in accordance with the 90-day trial period as set out in her contract.

Employment Relations Authority (ERA) member Eleanor Robinson said major flaws in the procedure adopted by Retro in the termination could not be explained merely by the fact that the company was a small employer.

Robinson said by the time Mendez signed her contract she was already an employee, which meant the 90-day trial period did not apply.

In addition, Mendez had not been advised that her poor timekeeping and unreliability might result in her termination, and there had been no formal meeting to discuss these issues.

Robinson therefore determined the dismissal unjustifiable in an ERA decision released in March.

Mendez had not been able to find other work since her dismissal. She was awarded three months' worth of lost earnings totalling $8840, as well as $1500 for humiliation and loss of dignity.

Retro was also ordered to pay Mendez a penalty of $500 for not providing accurate payroll records.

Retro was not available for comment.