Twenty migrant laborers from Mexico filed a civil lawsuit together in Knox County Superior Court on Monday, alleging that they were treated unfairly in 2002 after their Mississippi-based employer brought them to Maine to rake wild blueberry fields in both Knox and Hancock counties.

The action alleges violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The suit also charges violations of the Maine Wage Payment Statute, as well as breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation.

The suit is filed against F&G Forestry Services Inc. of Stringer, Miss., and Francisco Tunek, president of that company. F&G’s business is the recruitment of farm workers who are furnished to growers in various states, including Maine.

The growers who put the 20 men to work on their blueberry fields in both Knox and Hancock counties were not identified in court documents.

The suit was filed by two bilingual lawyers who work with Pine Tree Legal Assistance of Bangor, Eric Nelson and Michael Guare.

The attorneys are seeking to recover for each laborer the amount of his unpaid wages, plus an amount equal to double each laborer’s unpaid wages in statutory liquidated damages.

Reached by phone Monday afternoon, Tunek said he is currently working in Union in Knox County.

He said he has not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit, but was told by his Mississippi lawyer earlier Monday to arrange for a lawyer in Maine.

“I will see a lawyer in Portland tomorrow; I haven’t had time yet,” Tunek said.

Tunek said that he has brought 100 migrant workers with him this summer, just as he has done for the past 12 years.

Tunek said he knows “all the people” in Maine’s blueberry industry, which has pockets in Knox, Waldo and Hancock counties and is concentrated in Washington County. He named a list of the processors and sub-contractors he has worked with over the years.

“I know everybody,” he said.

Tunek’s current workers started harvesting the fields in Knox County on July 21, after finishing other migrant work in North Carolina.

“Everybody is happy and working right now,” Tunek said. “If they sue me, I want to know the reason.”

The laborers were recruited to Maine by misleading information, the suit alleges, including the implication that each worker could earn as much as $8,000 raking blueberries.

They were told, too, that the piece rate for the berries would be $2.75 per box when it was actually $2.50 per box, according to the suit. They traveled to Maine on the understanding that they would pay no more than $2 per day for housing when they actually paid $5 per day or more. They believed also that they would not be charged for the expenses involved in traveling to Maine.

None of the laborers received any written information regarding the terms and conditions of their employment when they were being recruited, the suit contends.

The workers arrived in Maine by bus, using tickets and relying on small advances for food and other expenses that was supplied to them by Tunek, the document describes.

Asked about how he handles paychecks for the laborers, Tunek said: “I give them cash in advance and then I deduct that from their checks. I don’t know why they sue me.”

Between July 29 and Aug. 14, 2002, the laborers were placed first with a grower in Knox County and then with a grower in Hancock County.

“The defendants failed to pay the plaintiffs all the wages they had earned and also took deductions for advances from the plaintiffs’ wages which were not evidenced by writings signed by the plaintiffs,” the suit continues.

Nor did Tunek pay the workers at least $5.15, then the minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the suit.

Tunek allegedly failed to provide sufficient toilets and hand-washing facilities, in addition to employment and housing that did not live up to what laborers expected.

The attorneys representing the 20 Mexicans could not be reached for comment Monday.