Note 5 - Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Mar. 29, 2014

Compensation and Retirement 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 $0.4 million and $0.5 million in fiscal years 2014 and 2013, respectively.

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 2014 and 2013.

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 fiscal year 2014, the Company did not match any employee contributions, and in fiscal year 2013, 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 $0.8 million as of March 29, 2014 and $0.6 million as of March 30, 2013 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 change in the postretirement benefit obligation is as follows:

	FY 2014			FY 2013
Postretirement benefit obligation, at beginning of fiscal year	$	887		$	780
Service cost		32			59
Interest cost		38			41
Benefits paid		(29	)		(68	)
Actuarial (gain) loss		(46	)		75
Postretirement benefit obligation, at end of fiscal year		882			887
Fair value of plan assets, at end of fiscal year		-			-
Funded status, at end of year	$	(882	)	$	(887	)

Accumulated postretirement benefit obligation, at end of fiscal year	$	882		$	887

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 2014			FY 2013
Net periodic postretirement benefit cost:
Service cost	$	32		$	59
Interest cost		38			41
Amortization of prior service cost		58			58
		128			158
Benefit obligations recognized in other comprehensive income:
Amortization of prior service cost		(58	)		(58	)
Net loss		(46	)		58
		(104	)		-
Total recognized in net periodic benefit cost and other comprehensive income	$	24		$	158

Amount recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income, at end of fiscal year:
Unrecognized prior service cost	$	154		$	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 2015 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 postretirement benefit cost were as follows:

	March 29, 2014	March 30, 2013
Weighted average discount rate	4.5%	4.5%

Medical care cost trend rate:
Trend rate assumed for next year	8.0%	8.0%
Ultimate trend rate	5.0%	5.0%
Year that rate reaches ultimate trend rate	2022	2021

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
2015	$	39
2016		68
2017		54
2018		47
2019		64
Thereafter		610

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