THE SMALL but vocal People's Empowerment Party (PEP) wants more employee share ownership programmes established by corporate Barbados.

Its president, David Comissiong, made the point while reacting to the merger of Neal & Massy and Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T).

"Instead of seeking to disappear into a large and powerful Trinidad conglomerate," he said, "a company like BS&T should be seeking to broaden its local ownership base and cement the loyalty of its staff by instituting a profit sharing scheme that is devoted to purchasing BS&T shares for its several thousand Barbadian employees."

Comissiong described the merger between the two companies which will result in the largest conglomerate in the Caribbean as "proof positive" that the social evolution of Barbados had gone badly off track.

He added what was happening was a process of transferral to a variety of expatriate interests.

"Thus, BS&T seems well set to join the ranks of the Barbados National Bank, the Insurance Corporation of Barbados, Sagicor, WIBISCO, the Nation Publishing Company, the Arawak Cement Plant and a whole host of other substantial Barbadian corporations that have been taken over by a variety of foreign interests." (ES)