More than 50 Canada Revenue Agency employees in St. John's are losing their jobs because the document storage facility at which they work is closing in April.

The vice-president of the Union of Taxation Employees for the Atlantic region, Doug Gaetz, says the jobs are being turned over to the private sector.

He says it will be hard for the workers to land other positions in the federal agency.

"They are the most vulnerable and lowest paid employees in CRA," explained Gaetz.

"There's not a lot of positions at the entry level, so it's going to be difficult to try and find them jobs."

The storage facility is located at Donovans Industrial Park, where employees process documents including death certificates and wills, both paper and electronic.

Twenty-three people had permanent jobs, while the other 33 were contract employees. They were notified of the lay-offs late last week.

Gaetz says the union is fighting Ottawa's decision to privatize the storage of tax documents.