Ding Guo Wang and Xiao Yu Zhang, who traded as Goldshining Graphics & Printing, were each fined $11,880 for breaching the Fair Work Act by demoting and mistreating Jiongqui Ye after she told them she was pregnant.

The company was a trading name of Wongtas Pty Ltd, which was liquidated last June.

Justice Dennis Cowdroy said Wang and Zhang had "engaged in abusive action against [Ye] on the grounds of her gender and pregnancy" and that their conduct represented a "gross violation" of their Fair Work Act obligations.

The court found that after Ye informed her bosses of her pregnancy in 2009, she was told she might not be able to return to her job after the birth. She was later demoted to more menial duties after she took a week's leave following a miscarriage. She was then fired for complaining.

But Wang told ProPrint "the whole allegation is false" and that Ye "didn't get punished" for being pregnant.

He said he and his wife had initially denied the allegations, but had been forced to plead guilty because "by the time it went to court we didn't have money to fight the case".

According to Wang, Ye resigned in August 2009 and agreed to stay on until December to train her replacement. However, he claimed she then refused to train the replacement and took on the more menial duties of her own accord. According to Wang, the employee then complained to the Fair Work ombudsman because the company wouldn't reinstate her to the position from which she had resigned.

Wang said while he had no problem with the Fair Work Act, he and his wife had been wrongfully convicted of discrimination.

"If we had the money, maybe the outcome would have been different," he said.

Wang also denied Justice Cowdroy's inference that Wongtas had gone into liquidation to avoid being fined by the Fair Work ombudsman only to re-emerge as Wangtas.

Justice Cowdroy noted Wangtas had been formed in July 2010 and started operating under the name Goldshining Print at the former Wongtas site.

However, Wang told ProPrint he and his wife had been forced to liquidate Wongtas because the bad publicity had made it impossible to use the Wongtas name.

The couple's lawyer, Kiong Low & Co, denied Goldshining was just Wongtas in another guise, saying Wang and Zhang were not Goldshining directors.

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