New York Printer Can't Meet Payroll, Closes Shops

ROCHESTER, NY—Unable to meet his payroll obligations, the owner of two commercial printing facilities in upstate New York opted to let go about 170 employees after the state Labor Department demanded back pay and penalties totaling more than $300,000, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.

Printing Methods, based here, and Albion Color of Albion, NY, went silent last Friday after owner Olanrewaju Olotu—facing compliance orders for $103,000 in back wages and $205,000 in civil penalties—dismissed the staffs. According to the paper, the company was hit with $6,000 in fines on May 19 for late payments to the workers.