Multiple associations representing US federal employees filed an amended complaint on Sunday, asserting that reporting requirements instituted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are unlawful.

OPM sent an email on Saturday requiring federal workers to provide a five-bullet-point list outlining their accomplishments for that week. The complaint stated that prior to the email, “no OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM.”

Plaintiffs alleged that OPM established the requirement in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Under the APA, agencies are required to follow a defined rulemaking process that includes public notice and an opportunity to provide comments. Plaintiffs contended that the agency instituted the rule without following the approved procedure.

The plaintiffs were also unsure of the true source of the email. The email was unsigned and from a previously unregistered email address. While some departments like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department initially directed employees to comply, other agencies, including the FBI, advised their staff to disregard or delay responding to the email.

In a letter to the Acting Director of the OPM Charles Ezell, Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, stated that not only the email lacks legal authority to support its demand, but it is also “disruptive to essential government functions.”

The complaint amended an earlier lawsuit asking for an injunction against OPM’s termination of “tens of thousands” of workers across dozens of agencies. OPM directed agencies to fire employees within their 1-2 year probationary period after starting federal employment citing performance despite no evidence to support the determination.

The new OPM policy is seen as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Previously, Trump offered deferred resignations to more than two million federal employees. The offers were criticized as creating a toxic working environment for workers, forcing them to resign.