Mexicans taken to northern California as temporary agricultural workers have sued their employer, claiming they were misled about pay and working conditions.

California Rural Legal Assistance filed the suit against Sierra-Cascades Nursery of Susanville, the Los Angeles Times reported. California officials have notified the company it is violating labor laws by failing to pay overtime.

From the moment we got on the bus in Nogales, we knew they were feeding us lies, Ricardo Valle said.

Valle said that on the bus the workers were given a liquid diet, with nothing but water. In California, couples like Valle and his wife, Ana Luisa Salinas, had been promised tiny bungalows and instead found they were living in a dorm.

Many of the inexperienced workers found that they could not meet the company quota of trimming 1,025 strawberry plants an hour, so they did not get the promised $9 hourly wage.

Larry Memmott, the company's human resources director, told the Times this was its first year using the guest worker program and the problems were caused by inexperience.