Should employers be concerned about data subject access requests in redundancy situations?

The short answer – yes.

A data subject access request entitles an employee to be provided with a copy of all personal data from which he/she can be identified that is held on file by his employer within a 40 day timeframe subject to receipt of a nominal fee. The risk factor for employers in the context of a redundancy situation is that an employee will be entitled to copies of any emails or minutes of meetings where that employee's conduct and/or performance was discussed.

Effectively the employee will be looking for a "smoking gun" to build a case that the purported redundancy of his/her role is a "sham" and the employer is effectively looking to exit that employee on grounds of poor