STORRS, Conn. -- A group of former workers of a Storrs restaurant allege that the restaurant took advantage of them.

Cooks and delivery workers of Chang's Garden Chinese Restaurant claim that they were paid only $4 and $5 per hour.

The workers claim that the restaurant, located near the University of Connecticut campus, refused to pay them minimum wage and overtime pay.

Former employee Ben Wu said he had to work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, and was only paid $4.14 an hour.

"I work here every week, every week I work 70 hours," Wu said.

The workers told Eyewitness News that the owner of the restaurant let them stay in his house but said that the conditions were not pleasant. Nine of them stayed in a basement apartment and often had no heat or water, according to the former workers.

All of the workers said they came from China and paid an employment agency in New York city to find them jobs. None of the workers had ever been to Connecticut.

"People are being recruited through employment agencies in the city and being brought to isolated areas like this where they don't have support from fellow immigrants and Mandarin speakers, and then they get employed, once they find out the conditions, they can't find other employment," said Yale Law student Kirill Penteshin. "In essence, they are trapped."

Penteshin is assisting the former workers. He said that their salaries were so low, they couldn't afford to rent an apartment.

The workers said that when they questioned the owners about the conditions, they were fired.

The restaurant's owners declined comment to Eyewitness News. They were served a copy of the lawsuit filed by the former workers on Tuesday.

The workers are looking for back pay and compensation.