Lawsuit Challenges 'Resignation' Threat to Federal Workers

Federal workers are claiming in an amended lawsuit that they can't be fired for not responding to an email from the Office of Personnel Management that requires them to submit a list of their recent accomplishments or face forced "resignation."

Millions of federal workers reportedly received an email Saturday with the subject line, "What did you do last week?" It asked employees to list five items of what they accomplished in the past week and respond by 11:59 p.m. Monday. The email stated that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

The lawsuit was first filed Wednesday at U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. The plaintiffs include the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, other federal employee unions and groups such as Main Street Alliance, the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks and the Vote Vets Action Fund. It was amended Sunday.

The amended lawsuit stated that before Saturday, "no notice was published, in the Federal Register or anywhere else, regarding any OPM program, rule, policy, or regulation requiring all federal employees to provide a report regarding their work to OPM."

"OPM has not complied with any procedural requirements in the APA [Administrative Procedure Act], with respect to this new program," the lawsuit stated. "Subsequent to the OPM email notification on [Saturday], at least some federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began telling their employees not to respond to this OPM surprise request."

In addition to the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Defense Department, the State Department, and national intelligence agencies have instructed their employees not to immediately respond to the email. But the Transportation Department told employees to respond, according to an email obtained by NBC News on Monday.

Trump on Monday reportedly warned federal employees that if they don't respond the email, they will be fired.

Later Monday, a judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday afternoon on the lawsuit's request for a temporary restraining order blocking the terminations, according to NBC News.

"In the time it took these employees on taxpayer-funded salaries to file a frivolous lawsuit, they could have briefly recapped their accomplishments to their managers, as is common in the private sector, 100 times over," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Newsmax. "The Trump administration will continue to demand the high level of dedication and excellence from public employees that the American people deserve."

The lawsuit when first filed objected to OPM's directive Feb. 13 advising all federal agencies to fire their probationary employees after it reportedly fell short of its goal of employees accepting deferred resignations. The amended lawsuit includes the letter OPM sent Saturday, which was sparked by President Donald Trump's Truth Social post that morning in which he wrote he would like to see Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, get "more aggressive."

Later that day, Musk posted on X, which he owns, that "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

"Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people," Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Saturday in statement. "It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.

"AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country."