PENSION AND EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

9 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Compensation And Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

(J) PENSION AND EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

We sponsor several defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution plans which together cover substantially all our employees. Benefits paid under the defined benefit plans covering certain hourly employees are based on years of service and the employee’s qualifying compensation over the last few years of employment.

The following table shows the components of net periodic cost for our plans:

	For the Three Months Ended December 31,						For the Nine Months ended December 31,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
	(dollars in thousands)						(dollars in thousands)
Service Cost – Benefits Earned During the Period	$	153		$	222		$	557		$	665
Interest Cost of Benefit Obligations		357			399			1,110			1,196
Expected Return on Plan Assets		(578	)		(416	)		(1,558	)		(1,247	)
Recognized Net Actuarial Loss		46			425			519			1,276
Amortization of Prior-Service Cost		60			75			210			224
Net Periodic Pension Cost	$	38		$	705		$	838		$	2,114

We contributed approximately $8.5 million to our pension plans during December 2017, which is expected to substantially decrease our unfunded pension liability at March 31, 2018.