A union for federal employees has sued President Donald Trump over an executive order regarding hiring and firing such government workers.

The new class of employee, Schedule F, was created in Trump's executive order on Monday to allow federal employees working on policy to be like political appointees, so they can be swiftly hired and fired. This would allow such employees to be hired outside the traditional merit-based system for bureaucrats.

“Congress has enacted comprehensive legislation governing the hiring and employment of federal employees,” the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) wrote in the lawsuit filed late Monday, The Hill reported. “When establishing hiring principles, Congress determined that most federal government jobs be in the merit-based, competitive service. And it established that most federal employees have due process rights if their agency employer wants to remove them from employment.”

“Because the Policy/Career Executive Order attempts to divest federal employees of these due process rights, it is contrary to congressional intent,” the filing added.

The executive order explains the reasoning for establishing the new class of federal employees.

"Accountability is essential for all Federal employees, but it is especially important for those who are in policy-influencing positions. These personnel are entrusted to shape and implement actions that have a significant impact on all Americans," the order reads. "Any power they have is delegated by the President, and they must be accountable to the President, who is the only member of the executive branch, other than the Vice President, elected and directly accountable to the American people.

"In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership. Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character."

Trump's order also notes that "Only 41 percent of civil service supervisors are confident that they can remove an employee who engaged in insubordination or serious misconduct. Even fewer supervisors –- 26 percent — are confident that they can remove an employee for poor performance."

Federal agencies are headed up by political appointees, but most federal employees are staffers hired by the appointees or their subordinates.