Seeking to stop international investment in Cuba and profit-sharing with the Cuban government, two Cuban exile groups in Miami filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against 40 multinational companies doing business with the island nation.

The exiles accuse the businesses -- airlines, hotels and banks, among others -- of discrimination, saying they conspired with the Cuban government to deny Cuban nationals access to premises normally reserved for tourists.

The suit, which seeks $1.35 billion in compensatory damages, also claims the companies indirectly contracted Cuban workers who are paid extremely low wages by the government. The government keeps the bulk of the payments that the companies pay for labor, the suit said.

Attorneys Eduardo Navarro and Leonardo Viota-Sesin filed the suit on behalf of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and the Independent Federation of Electric, Gas and Water Plants of Cuba. Both groups, the suit says, maintain offices in Havana and Miami.

``If transnational corporations want to reap the fruits of engaging in international commerce, they must be prepared to respect those fundamental human rights in Cuba and in any other country that is equally susceptible to similar abuse,'' Navarro said.

The suit was filed in Miami-Dade circuit court and was assigned to Judge Steve Levine. Attorneys familiar with international law -- who are not involved in the case -- raised questions Thursday about how successful such a lawsuit could be, given the circumstances. Some expressed skepticism, wondering if publicity is the suit's real purpose, while others applauded the idea.

Miami lawyer Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. Attorney for South Florida, said the lawsuit is part of a trend relying on U.S. courts to address abusive and illegal conduct in Cuba.

``The suit clearly addresses an important civil rights concern, and will carry its message to the boardrooms of dozens of companies that may have a connection to this serious problem,'' Coffey said. ``As a vehicle for delivering an important message about civil rights abuses, the suit has symbolic value.''

``As a lawsuit, it sails in uncharted waters and faces significant procedural and substantive obstacles,'' Coffey said. Among them, he said: The class-action suit was filed in a Florida state court on behalf of residents of a foreign country and involves foreign as well as international laws.

``Frankly, I think it's a very good lawsuit,'' said Rafael Sanchez-Aballi, an international corporate lawyer and commercial litigator in Miami. Sanchez-Aballi praised the political impact the litigation would have, saying it would inform ``the public of the fact that the Cuban government systematically violates all international legal norms with respect to labor and employment as well as its own Cuban code.''

``All those companies should be sued in their own respective cities,'' he added.

Although the suit also names the Cuban government as a defendant, lawyers said Thursday they plan to drop it, since they believe the government itself is immune from such a lawsuit.

The suit specifically names 40 companies, among them U.S. corporations like NationsBank, BancAmerica, American Express Travel Related Services, Cuba Amor and ABC Charters. The latter two are Florida corporations.

According to Navarro, NationsBank and BancAmerica have a majority interest in an international company, Leisure Canada, which in turn has interests in a French corporation named Meridien Gestion. The French firm is currently building a $400 million hotel in Cuba. George Owens, spokesman for NationsBank in Jacksonville, was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Vivian Mannerud, owner of ABC Charters, also was out of town. A woman who answered the phone said she had not heard about the suit and had no information.

The suit claims that the international companies pay Acorec, a firm owned by the Cuban government, approximately $450 a month per worker, yet Acorec in turn pays the workers only $5 a month. The multinational companies also help maintain a tourist industry within Cuba that discriminates against its residents because they are denied access to hotels, beaches and restaurants. It says the practice is a violation of Cuba's Socialist Constitution of 1976, the International Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations' Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. The latter two are international treaties that the government of Fidel Castro has allegedly signed.

In addition, the suit says the companies are involved in a system of indirect labor contracting that violates the Cuban Socialist Constitution of 1976 and ``numerous'' international labor conventions.

The plaintiffs say they represent Cubans currently living on the island and exiles in Miami. The Cuban Committee for Human Rights -- formed in 1976 by dissident Ricardo Bofill, who now lives in Miami -- maintains its headquarters in Havana and is led by Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, the only Cuban national actually named in the suit.

The Independent Federation is a labor union that existed in the island under Cuban law through 1959 and continues to maintain offices in Havana, the suit says. It's an association of labor organizations and activists representing workers, the suit says.

It's likely that attorneys for the companies will ask the judge to dismiss the case. Judge Levine will have to decide whether the case has any legal underpinnings to stand on, said Miami lawyer Ira Leesfield, who is not involved in the case.

``The legal system is set up to constantly expand theories of action,'' said Leesfield, recently appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, which is involved in the effort to get money for the families of Holocaust victims whose assets may have been improperly kept by Swiss banks.