Note 5 - Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Mar. 30, 2013

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 5 – EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

Defined Contribution Plan. All of Transcat’s U.S. based employees are eligible to participate in a defined contribution plan, the Long-Term Savings and Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (the “Plan”), provided certain qualifications are met.

In the long-term savings portion of the Plan (the “401K Plan”), plan participants are entitled to a distribution of their vested account balance upon termination of employment or retirement. Plan participants are fully vested in their contributions while Company contributions are fully vested after three years of service. The Company’s matching contributions to the 401K Plan were $0.5 million in fiscal year 2013 and $0.4 million in fiscal year 2012.

In the deferred profit sharing portion of the Plan, Company contributions are made at the discretion of the Board of Directors. The Company made no profit sharing contributions in fiscal years 2013 and 2012.

Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan. The Company has available a non-qualified deferred compensation plan (the “NQDC Plan”) for directors and officers. Participants are fully vested in their contributions. At its discretion, the Company may elect to match employee contributions, subject to legal limitations in conjunction with the 401K Plan, which fully vest after three years of service. During each of the fiscal years 2013 and 2012, the Company made matching contributions of less than $0.1 million. Participant accounts are adjusted to reflect performance, whether positive or negative, of selected investment options chosen by each participant during the deferral period. In the event of bankruptcy, the assets of the NQDC Plan are available to satisfy the claims of general creditors. The liability for compensation deferred under the NQDC Plan was $0.6 million as of March 30, 2013 and $0.2 million as of March 31, 2012 and is included as a component of other liabilities (non-current) on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Postretirement Health Care Plans. The Company has a defined benefit postretirement health care plan which provides long-term care insurance benefits, medical and dental insurance benefits and medical premium reimbursement benefits to eligible retired corporate officers and their eligible spouses (the “Officer Plan”). The Company also had a defined benefit postretirement health care plan which provided limited reimbursement to eligible non-officer participants for the cost of individual medical insurance coverage (the “Non-Officer Plan”). During fiscal year 2012, the Non-Officer Plan was discontinued with benefits accrued only for employees who had met the plan’s eligibility requirements on or before March 31, 2012. The Company satisfied its obligation under the Non-Officer Plan by paying all remaining benefits, totaling less than $0.1 million, during fiscal year 2013.

The change in the postretirement benefit obligation is as follows:

	FY 2013			FY 2012
Postretirement benefit obligation, at beginning of fiscal year	$	780		$	706
Service cost		59			127
Interest cost		41			40
Benefits paid		(68	)		(12	)
Actuarial loss		75			71
Curtailment gain		-			(152	)
Postretirement benefit obligation, at end of fiscal year		887			780
Fair value of plan assets, at end of fiscal year		-			-
Funded status, at end of year	$	(887	)	$	(780	)

Accumulated postretirement benefit obligation, at end of fiscal year	$	887		$	780

The accumulated postretirement benefit obligation is included as a component of other liabilities (non-current) in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The components of net periodic postretirement benefit cost and other amounts recognized in other comprehensive income are as follows:

	FY 2013			FY 2012
Net periodic postretirement benefit cost:
Service cost	$	59		$	127
Interest cost		41			40
Amortization of prior service cost		58			13
		158			180
Benefit obligations recognized in other comprehensive income:
Amortization of prior service cost		(58	)		(13	)
Net loss		58			65
		-			52
Total recognized in net periodic benefit cost and other comprehensive income	$	158		$	232

Amount recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income, at end of fiscal year:
Unrecognized prior service cost	$	258		$	258

The prior service cost is amortized over the average remaining life expectancy of active participants for the Officer Plan. The estimated prior service cost that will be amortized from accumulated other comprehensive gain into net periodic postretirement benefit cost during fiscal year 2014 is less than $0.1 million.

The postretirement benefit obligation was computed by an independent third party actuary. Assumptions used to determine the postretirement benefit obligation and the net periodic benefit cost were as follows:

	March 30, 2013			March 31, 2012
Weighted average discount rate		4.5	%		4.7	%

Medical care cost trend rate:
Trend rate assumed for next year		8.0	%		8.5	%
Ultimate trend rate		5.0	%		5.0	%
Year that rate reaches ultimate trend rate		2021			2020

Dental care cost trend rate:
Trend rate assumed for next year and remaining at that level thereafter		5.0	%		5.0	%

Benefit payments are funded by the Company as needed. Payments toward the cost of a retiree’s medical and dental coverage are initially determined as a percentage of a base coverage plan in the year of retirement and are limited to increase at a rate of no more than 50% of the annual increase in medical and dental costs, as defined in the plan document. The following benefit payments, which reflect expected future service, as appropriate, are expected to be paid as follows:

Fiscal Year	Amount
2014	$	51
2015		57
2016		62
2017		62
2018		56
Thereafter		599

Increasing the assumed health care cost trend rate by one percentage point would increase the accumulated postretirement benefit obligation and the annual net periodic cost by $0.1 million. A one percentage point decrease in the healthcare cost trend would decrease the accumulated postretirement benefit obligation and the annual net periodic cost by $0.1 million.