EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

3 Months Ended

Apr. 01, 2018

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

6.  EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Pension Plan

We maintain a qualified defined benefit pension plan (“Pension Plan”), which covers certain eligible current and former employees and has been frozen since March 31, 2009.  No new participants may enter the Pension Plan and no further benefits will accrue. However, years of service continue to count toward early retirement calculations and vesting of benefits previously earned.

We also have a limited number of supplemental retirement plans to provide certain key current and former employees with additional retirement benefits.  These plans are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis and the accrued pension obligation is largely included in other long-term obligations.

The elements of retirement expense are as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	April 1,		March 26,
(in thousands)	2018		2017
Pension plans:
Interest Cost	$	19,788	$	21,367
Expected return on plan assets		(22,624)		(22,392)
Actuarial loss		6,295		5,084
Net pension expense		3,459		4,059
Net post-retirement benefit credit		(681)		(732)
Net retirement benefit expenses	$	2,778	$	3,327

401(k) Plan

We have a deferred compensation plan (“401(k) plan”), which enables eligible employees to voluntarily defer compensation. During the fourth quarter of 2017, we announced the reinstatement of a company matching contribution program beginning with the first pay check paid in 2018. Our matching contributions in the quarter ended April 1, 2018, were $0.7 million and are recorded in our compensation line item of our condensed consolidated statement of operations. Also during the fourth quarter of 2017, we terminated the 401(k) plan supplemental contribution that was tied to performance.