Randy Garciga JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC BEWARE! Multiple businesses operator in wrongful death lawsuit violates OSHA safety regs and labor contracts with no conscience whatsoever. Linden, New Jersey

Since this original post was made by a disgruntled former employee almost three (3) years ago, I have been only left with defending my reputation earned over my 35 years as a businessman.  It is unfortunate that my only recourse is to either pay money to have this slanderous material updated, but never removed or be forced (as I am now) to continue to respond to outright lies about my character and business practices.  The owners of this forum state that their intention is to “encourage and even require authors to only file truthful reports, Ripoff Report does not guarantee that all reports are authentic or accurate.”  It is because this forum really has no means of ensuring that the “authors” are truthful and accurate, that I am left to add to my response.      

As an owner of multiple national business concerns, I am fully aware that potential customers and business associates will use the internet as a means of research before deciding to do business.  While some use the internet as a means of giving truthful information to the public at large regarding unscrupulous businesses and their practices, we also know that many people will use the anonymity of the internet to caste a negative light on honest, hard-working businesses in an effort to ensure a lasting effect on an honest business due to misguided and usually wholly selfish reasons.  This has always been the intentions of the former employee who began this report against me and after 3 years, his intention to slander and hurt my business continues unabated. 

Recently, I was confronted by a potential customer who came upon this report and inquired about the veracity of the claims being made against me.  As I have many times since 2010, I defended not only my actions with the former employee who wrote the report, but also lies included by that employee regarding my business practices.  The claim which seems to cause the most concern by potential customers is that I, through one of my companies, am currently a party to a wrongful death lawsuit.  As an owner of a scaffolding company in the northeast, I assist in many construction projects as a subcontractor. 

It is through one of these projects that I was added a party in a lawsuit due to an unfortunate accident which occurred at a jobsite where an employee of another subcontractor on the project fell and subsequently died from injuries sustained on the site.  My company stated from the outset that the accident which caused the death of this person was not due to any actions by us and we have vigorously maintained this position throughout the legal process.  In March of this year, the Court agreed with our assertion and dismissed my company from the lawsuit with prejudice (meaning that no claim can be brought against us in the future regarding this matter), finally ending our involvement and negative innuendo that was spoken by the former employee about this matter.  The Court specifically stated the following:

“This matter having been opened to the Court by motion of the attorneys for Defendants, JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC… and the Court having read the moving papers and having heard the argument of counsel, if any, and for good cause being shown; It is on this 8^th day of March 2013, ORDERED that the motion shall be and is hereby granted, and final summary judgment shall be entered , dismissing the Complaint and any and all crossclaims with prejudice as to Defendants, JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC”          

As I have stated since the outset of my name being placed on this forum, I am appalled at the fact that lies can be spread through the actions of a clearly disgruntled and angry person.  I feel that the Ripoff Report bares the responsibility of ensuring that truthful statements are included and that they should provide a means of removal for clearly incorrect postings other than using the such lies as a means to profit at the expense of the innocent.  I have researched commencing legal actions against the disgruntled employee as well as the Ripoff Report, only to find that our legal system provides protections to both which do not in fact fairly protect me as well. 

I am left with the choice of expending significant sums of money to fight a battle which is surprisingly skewed against me even though I am the aggrieved party in this matter who is being lied upon.  It is important to note that the Ripoff Report states on its website that any person reading information here, “Be an educated consumer. Read what you can and make your decision based upon an examination of all available information.”.  I feel that my situation clearly defines this statement above and hope that anyone who read this “report” and my responses will do just that.

This is a simple case of a spoiled, childish bully (GARCIGA) who thinks he can intimidate anyone because he has money (supposedly) and connections. I refuse to be intimidated and demand that he make good on his contractual promises. If his word is good, and he does have the money to make good on it, why doesn't he? Because he either doesn't have the money or his word is no good... or some combination of both.

STATEMENTS BY GARCIGA in HIS rebuttal support what the report says, though the rebuttal itself is self-serving and laced with blatant lies. His arrogance and condescension apparently knows no bounds...

GARCIGA: - This ex-employee accuses me of failing to make payrolls, not giving employees paychecks, and of firing employees who complain/object to these practices. My response to this accusation is to state that I have NEVER been subject to any complaint with a Labor or Employment Board in any state related to my dealings with any person in my employ. -

Ex-employee: Garciga does not deny that he 'failed to make payrolls, not giving employees paychecks, and of firing employees who complain/object to these practices;" but he did fail to make payrolls, not give employees their paychecks, and fired employees who complained by objecting to these practices. I PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED AND WITNESSED IT. He just says that he's 'NEVER been subject to any complaint,' but...

"NEVER been subject to any complaint with a Labor or Employment" IS A FALSE STATEMENT. Garciga well knows that even as he writes this he has had at least one police report made for issuing a bad check (that was later made good) and at least one department of labor complaint for failure to make payment for wages due and dishonoring an employment contract.

GARCIGA: -I have always made sure that each employee receives their pay for the work they have done. Often ensuring these payments are made with my own personal funds when the company was unable to do it. -

Ex-employee: Obviously he did not read the report well (not surprisingly). I acknowledged that EVENTUALLY checks WERE made good after the payroll date had passed and people were left without funds for several days. How magnanimous of him, considering he was the responsible party to begin with - as he clearly states later in his rebuttal.

GARCIGA: - The disgruntled employee further intimates that I cared less about my employees ability to pay their bills and provide for their families. Due to his very brief time in my employee, I do not know how this angry ex-employee could make such a statement considering I have many employees who have been with me for 10 years or more. -

Ex-employee: - I can make such as statement because I witnessed and experienced it myself personally.

GARCIGA: - As for the bitter ex-employees claim that I paid only certain employees, again I state that I have NEVER had a claim for any unfair practices as it relates to my current or previous employees.

Ex-employee: - Except for me, he means - so this is OBVIOUSLY UNTRUE (as Garciga well knows). I am a previous employee... and I can make such as statement because I witnessed and experienced it myself personally.

GARCIGA: - This ex-employee goes into detail to outline what he considers shady dealings by myself and people under my employ. He uses as an example the fact that documents he states pertained to a bankruptcy case were shredded, but fails to admit that not only did he decide to shred the documents, but also he carried out the shredding of those documents.

Ex-employee: - THIS STATEMENT IS TOTALLY FALSE AND GARCIGA KNOWS IT. It is a blatant lie. I never shredded or authorized the shredding of any documents, QUITE THE CONTRARY. I reported to Garciga that the shredding of documents was taking place - not the other way around. But he knew it was taking place, ostensibly because he authorized it, and it may have been common practice at the company for all I know.  Garciga was told that I highly objected to it. I went so far as to create an archive storage area and make sure that sensitive documents were stored there in the event that subpoenas become necessary to substantiate any transgressions. I believe this may be one of the reasons why he has become so frightened of what may be happening there; someone may actually find out what's really been going on.

All shredding of documents (whether related to employees and clients confidential information or other evidentiary documentation) was carried out under the direction of the Office Manager at the company after the previous owner/manager of the company had been ousted. She personally directed numerous cases of documents to be destroyed. I was specifically denied access to those files, and I have no knowledge whatsoever of what the contents of those files may have been.

GARCIGA: - Upon being made aware of the ex-employee wasting his time shredding documents which had nothing to do with JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC or with the job that I had hired him for, I instructed him to stop. -

Ex-employee: - THIS IS ANOTHER BLATANT LIE AND ATTEMPT AT MISDIRECTION. I was never told to stop because I was not engaged in it in any way. Again Garciga well knows this for the reasons stated above. I was hired to do so; if I was engaged in cleaning up the place, and getting rid of old junk was what I was doing, I was doing my job. While I did make every possible effort to clean up the place (among other things), I did not undertake to destroy any records whatsoever. The details of my duties are clearly contained in the job description in my contract.

But even more telling is his statement that documents which had "nothing to do" with JTG Scaffolding were being destroyed...  How or why would there be documents at JTG Scaffolding that had "nothing to do" with the company, and why were they being destroyed? If that were true, then he really did know what was going on much more than I. That's fine - he should have known; but why is he lying about it? Does he think he hired me to be some kind of fall guy? That's not going to happen.

GARCIGA: - As stated previously, it is unfortunate that I must take time out of my very busy day to create this rebuttal. I am left with no choice but to respond to protect my integrity, name, and honor from a vicious attack by a disgruntled ex-employee who has nothing better to do than attempt to sully me. He claims that my companies are "in danger of imminent collapse" which couldnt be further from the truth. I have made this ex-employee aware that I will use the full force of the law to ensure that he does not slander or defame me in any fashion. -

Ex-employee: - I reiterate that His (Garciga's) "word" is meaningless, and he commands no loyalty whatsoever as evidenced by the lack of anyone in his entourage that has been there for more than a few months. It is my personal experience that he signs or authorizes the execution of contracts with no intention whatsoever of honoring them. I have personally experienced this as well as have heard him and others in his employ so specifically state without reservation. My advice to all who read this? STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM RANDY GARCIGA, JTG SCAFFOLDING AND HOISTING LLC AND COBRA POWER CORP as you possibly can. The way things are being run, all appear to be in danger of imminent collapse. This is my opinion after having dealt with the most absurd circumstances ever encountered in 35+ years in business.

GARCIGA: - It is my hope that in providing this rebuttal, I am not climbing down into the muck from which the original report and its author comes from. I have made every effort to take the high ground related to this ex-employee and will continue to do so in the future. -

Ex-employee: - See? This is what Garciga thinks of those who have had to challenge him. We crawl out of the "muck" while he "takes the high ground". I've had to listen to the foulest epithets imaginable emanating from his mouth about the employees who work for him and people who have done business with him. I've had to endure him whining for hours about how he is losing everything because his shopping centers are emptying out due to the economy and that "this country is sh^&" (and lots worse) and it's being run by idiots etc.

GARCIGA: - Those who know me and those with whom I have had the pleasure of working with know that these baseless distortions are not true. I write this not for them, but for those with whom I may have the pleasure of interacting with in the future. -

Ex-employee: - These are not "baseless" distortions. They are 100% true without distortion; it is Garciga who is attempting to distort this report. This case speaks for itself: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1127512.html; a breach of warranty case that has been going on for years. Why? This could easily have been settled without dragging it on. It's Garciga's refusal to accept responsibility even while admitting it; just as he does in the rebuttal to this report.

GARCIGA: -My only request is that you consider the source of these accusations and what a reasonable person would determine as the motives behind such an attack as this. -

Ex-employee: - This is all happening because of Garciga's failure to honor a contract which I entered into with him in good faith, and because he has so far refused to pay the wages owed according to that contract and as REQUIRED BY LAW.

It's too bad, too. As Garciga well knows, I went way out of my way to help him and his failing company, all on the promise of a great and rewarding future. Because I had to relocate from 4 hours distance and at my own expense, I spent the weeknights in hotel rooms, coming to work every day to complete and utter chaos for weeks.

Since I refuse to quit any job I start, I stayed on in the hope that Garciga would come to his senses and stop the waffling, all the while being mercilessly bombarded with challenges to my authority by angry and confused employees who weren't told that I was contracted to turn the company around, and who didn't have any idea who to report to on what matters.

Because of Garciga's plain lack of common sense or Machiavellian penchant for creating anarchy (and then laughing about it, as observed several times), for my efforts all I got was disrespect, lies - and now threats.

Yes, there is more... Notice that he doesn't deny being involved in other other lawsuits, either? Even more dramatic is this event...

In a phone call from him directly to me on August 3rd (which was immediately reported to state authorities and the FBI), Garciga stated that I "should have checked him out" better and that he may have to "send a message to my pretty little wife".

These are the words and actions of someone who is truly frightened and afraid of what may happen because of what they have done, not someone who is fearless of repercussion. They are words of a diabolical mind and the actions of a cornered animal.

In closing, I have plenty to do - but this is important too; especially now that Garciga has personally (and quite cowardly) threatened my family.

He's crossed the line. I'm not waiting for Garciga to perform anymore; the justice system is taking over.

I am filing this rebuttal to a Ripoff Report filed by an disgruntled ex-employee in which he proceeds to outline many lies, mischaracterizations, omissions, and distortions related to me personally and regarding two companies I own (namely, JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC and Cobra Power).  Let me start by saying that it should be noted that while my name is prominently displayed throughout the report, the ex-employee begins this fabrication by changing his name as the author and the location from which he is reporting these lies.  This only shows that while he intends to take every effort to drag my name through the dirt, he does it by hiding his own identity so that he wont be personally looked upon as the petty, childish amateur that he really is. 

I have been a business owner for over 30 years and continue to own multiple businesses across the country, which employ over 100 people nationwide.  I have made every attempt I can to assist my employees and the communities in which I acquire companies to share in any success that we achieve.  In those 30 years of business ownership I have never met anyone who is like the author of this misguided report.       

It is true that this person was brought into JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting to assist in managing it through some very tough economic times.  He was hired based upon his alleged experience and promises made by him as it related to his interpersonal skills, his construction experience, and his ability to bring revenue to the company.  Upon his employment it became clear that he was unable to fulfill all of the things that he promised to deliver during his recruitment.  After many lengthy discussions relating to my expectations of him prior to offering employment and his promises to follow my directives, I brought him on board with a very generous compensation package relying upon what he had promised to achieve for JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting.  

It is unfortunate that I am left to respond to this pack of lies in an effort to protect the integrity I have built in my 30 years of business ownership, but I have no true choice.  I will not allow this person to destroy my years of hard, honest work with a few minutes of anonymous work at his computer.  

This ex-employee accuses me of failing to make payrolls, not giving employees paychecks, and of firing employees who complain/object to these practices. My response to this accusation is to state that I have NEVER been subject to any complaint with a Labor or Employment Board in any state related to my dealings with any person in my employ.  I have always made sure that each employee receives their pay for the work they have done.  Often ensuring these payments are made with my own personal funds when the company was unable to do it.  The disgruntled employee further intimates that I cared less about my employees ability to pay their bills and provide for their families.  Due to his very brief time in my employee, I do not know how this angry ex-employee could make such a statement considering I have many employees who have been with me for 10 years or more.  As for the bitter ex-employees claim that I paid only certain employees, again I state that I have NEVER had a claim for any unfair practices as it relates to my current or previous employees.  As such, his accusations regarding selective payment, are baseless and patently false.  As for his claims that changes have been made to benefits offered to employees, almost all business owners have been faced with hard choices in these tough economic times.  I have done and continue to do all that I can to keep my employees working while also attempting to make the decisions necessary to run a successful business in these difficult times. 

This ex-employee goes into detail to outline what he considers shady dealings by myself and people under my employ. He uses as an example the fact that documents he states pertained to a bankruptcy case were shredded, but fails to admit that not only did he decide to shred the documents, but also he carried out the shredding of those documents.  Upon being made aware of the ex-employee wasting his time shredding documents which had nothing to do with JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC or with the job that I had hired him for, I instructed him to stop.  He goes further into detail about meetings that because he may have not been privy to them, they were therefore unauthorized or illegal.  A claim that while frivolous, is rendered silly by the fact that he childishly is upset that he was not a part of them. 

During the above report, the disgruntled employee repeatedly uses language such as authority granted by contract, his authority, a person of authority, etc. as a means of granting in himself some vestige of legitimacy regarding his claims that he was not allowed to do what he wanted to do.  To this I can only reply that as the sole owner of JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting LLC, ALL AUTHORITY is vested in me and me alone.  I purchased the companies with my personal funds.  I continue to put millions of dollars of my personal wealth into my companies which affords me the ability to determine what is the best course of action related to them.  This highlights a fundamental difference between myself and this ex-employee.  While he whines like a child about some self perceived authority that he is unable to wield, I am focused on the task on moving my companies forward to the best of my ability. 

As stated previously, it is unfortunate that I must take time out of my very busy day to create this rebuttal.  I am left with no choice but to respond to protect my integrity, name, and honor from a vicious attack by a disgruntled ex-employee who has nothing better to do than attempt to sully me.  He claims that my companies are "in danger of imminent collapse" which couldnt be further from the truth.  I have made this ex-employee aware that I will use the full force of the law to ensure that he does not slander or defame me in any fashion.  It is my hope that in providing this rebuttal, I am not climbing down into the muck from which the original report and its author comes from.  I have made every effort to take the high ground related to this ex-employee and will continue to do so in the future.  Those who know me and those with whom I have had the pleasure of working with know that these baseless distortions are not true.  I write this not for them, but for those with whom I may have the pleasure of interacting with in the future.  My only request is that you consider the source of these accusations and what a reasonable person would determine as the motives behind such an attack as this. 

                                                                         Randy Garciga

                                                                                                                Owner, JTG Scaffolding & Hoisting

                                                                                                                Owner, Cobra Power        

This report is being made by a disgruntled former employee due to the company owner's breach of an employment contract among numerous other reasons - including for the protection of other employees and the general public.  This comany must be stopped before anyone else gets injured or killed on the job.

First, Garciga negotiated our contract in bad faith and acted even worse after my commencement of the work. Upon arrival at the company, I discovered that not a single person there that I had been advised that I was hired to take charge of the company. There were already two other people working there that he had made to believe that they were the General Managers, and they were fighting amongst themselves. There was a third person who was fired while I was there who also had been told that he was in charge of the company. Garciga purposefully did not order these subordinates to be subject to the authority which had been vested in me by contract. Consequently there was no one in charge; it was sheer chaos and a nightmarish experience for three solid weeks. Garciga almost seemed to revel in the absurdity of the situation that he himself created, often calling me late at night and babbling on for several hours about how others in the company were incompetent or criminals - or both.

I eventually discovered that I had accomplished the true reason he had hired me on the very first day - which was to physically oust the former owner/partner whom Garciga perceived had been stealing from the company. He then refused to honor the contract which I had entered into in good faith and attempted to change my duties to un-contracted-for activities. In addition he refused to honor the 60 day notice clause regarding termination and so far has refused to pay the damages created by his material breach of the contract.

Fortunately I brought in numerous people to see and document what was happening. I have maintained detailed personal logs as well. Consequently there are now at least six witnesses, in addition to the people still working at JTG and Cobra Power, who can confirm every statement made herein.

While employed with JTG Scaffolding and Hoisting LLC in Linden, New Jersey - (to the best of my knowledge a company wholly owned by Randy Garciga; financed by him and Cobra Power Corporation of North Miami, Florida) - I personally observed Garciga refuse to make adequate payrolls three weeks in a row, subjecting employees to either not get their paychecks or not be paid - and then firing them when they complained or objected. According to him, he did it just to punish the administrative staff for not collecting enough revenue to make the payrolls; though by his own admission he had guaranteed these payrolls for at least nine months before I arrived there.

Garciga himself is a multi-millionaire, and he could not have cared less about the employees he put at risk of not being able to pay their rents or even buy food for their (dozens of) children and dependent family members. Even when JTG employees eventually did collect enough to make the payrolls, they (or he) selectively chose certain employees to not be paid. Other employees who were hired at specific rates were paid less than they were hired for without their knowledge or acceptance of such rate downgrade.

He then, after paying some employees holiday pay as they had been getting for years, arbitrarily decided to deduct the pay from succeeding paychecks - again - without their knowledge or willing participation. Finally, after repeatedly delaying or not making payrolls on time, he attempted to reduce wages company-wide/"across the board" of 10% - to which after several employees threatened to quit or file complaints with the NJ Department of Labor, the attempt was withdrawn.

To the best of my knowledge at least one employee who was given a paycheck that bounced (or could not be cashed) filed a criminal complaint against Garciga with the Linden Police department - and he was fired. I also discovered numerous anomolies by office staffers including the shredding of documents (evidentiary); ostensibly to prevent the uncovering of evidence of fraudulent activity with respect to a bankruptcy case - or for other unknown reasons. Unauthorized meetings behind locked doors by subordinate employees with subcontractors and suppliers... resulting in "side-deals" for the parties involved; appearing to be sanctioned by Garciga.

This was business-as-usual before I was engaged to put a stop to it, then I was prevented from taking the required action to do so. This all makes no sense unless there were ulterior motives or guilty knowledge on the part of the owner.

Furthermore, my contract called for participation in profit sharing. This could not be controllable to any degree with such clandestine meetings taking place - and without any administrative oversight by the interested parties.

In addition to these strange happenings, there were more bizarre events. Even though I seriously advised him of the immediate dangers, he over-rode authority granted by contract and refused to authorize the repairs to dangerous structural conditions on the property where employees work and are at risk of a building collapse. During my short tenure there I reported to him that mechanical equipment/tools were missing safety guards, that paint spraying booths with adequate ventilation were either missing or not being used, and that workers were not provided the use of safety gear (goggles, gloves and respirators etc.). The condition of the yard is an insurance liability nightmare, with trash and debris strewn about haphazardly - literally everywhere. Full dumpsters sat for weeks without being emptied and waste had been stacked around to the point where the dumpster itself was barely visible.

The one place where I "overstepped" my authority was to bring in a regular trash dupster for the disposal of organic waste and household trash - which had accumulated over months to the point where rats, other vermin, flies and maggots had created a totally unbearable condition. When it was finally cleaned up, the stench created was overwhelming and the neighborhood for hundreds of feet in every direction smelled like raw sewage for several days. JTG continues to violate OSHA regulations as a matter of course; allowing dangerous situations to occur or develop on jobsites, as evidenced by the numerous violations from cities across the region - and he ignores or refuses to allow repairs to be made to them for months - or at all.

Regarding the posting of notices regarding OSHA, Workers Compensation, Insurance, Discrimination etc.; you know those posters that EVERY employer is required to post in break rooms at every business and on every jobsite? One of my first demands was that these notices be posted - but I was not allowed to do this for one reason or another. Three days before I was terminated, I printed out every single notice/poster that I could find on the internet and gave them to the office manager to post in the lunch room. The day I was terminated this had still not been done. As further evidence of intentional illegal activity: I was recently ordered to create a waiver document in an attempt to divert liability to the GC (or building owner) on a project in Newark, NJ so that JTG could install scaffolding on a jobsite too close to power wires - in flagrant violation of OSHA regulations. I refused. As a person of authority (so specifically stated in my contract) to bring about the changes necessary to make the company more professional, organized and profitable. 

On the less serious yet still important side: there is also an employee there by the name of David Freeman who refused to stop smoking in company offices even after being warned - without any care or concern for the other employees - and while on-duty he would drink alcohol to the point where he would be drunk and completely belligerent. I filed a complaint against him with the local health department, who responded too late (after I had been terminated). This owner and his companies betray a complete and utter disregard for any contracts, whether verbal or written, and no compunction whatsoever about violating. His "word" is meaningless, and he commands no loyalty whatsoever as evidenced by the lack of anyone in his entourage that has been there for more than a few months. It is my personal experience that he signs or authorizes the execution of contracts with no intention whatsoever of honoring them. I have personally experienced this as well as have heard him and others in his employ so specifically state without reservation.

My personal policy is to never quit once I have made a commitment, so I stayed on with the hope that the situation would rectify itself - or until I was fired.

My advice to all who read this? STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM RANDY GARCIGA, JTG SCAFFOLDING AND HOISTING LLC AND COBRA POWER CORP as you possibly can. The way things are being run, all appear to be in danger of imminent collapse.