Employee and Retiree Benefits

3 Months Ended

Nov. 26, 2011

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

Employee and Retiree Benefits

Postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits are as follows:

(In thousands)	November 26, 2011			August 27, 2011
Postretirement health care benefit cost	$	41,668		$	41,370
Non-qualified deferred compensation	24,384			24,622
Executive share option plan liability	8,819			9,286
SERP benefit liability	3,123			3,086
Executive deferred compensation	92			93
Total postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits	78,086			78,457
Less current portion	(4,012		)	(3,965		)
Long-term postretirement health care and deferred compensation benefits	$	74,074		$	74,492

Postretirement Health Care Benefits

We provide certain health care and other benefits for retired employees hired before April 1, 2001, who have fulfilled eligibility requirements of age 55 with 15 years of continuous service. We use a September 1 measurement date for this plan and our postretirement health care plan currently is not funded. In Fiscal 2005, we established dollar caps on the amount that we will pay for postretirement health care benefits per retiree on an annual basis so that we were not exposed to continued medical inflation. Retirees are required to pay a monthly premium in excess of the employer dollar caps for medical coverage based on years of service and age at retirement. Net periodic postretirement benefit income consisted of the following components:

	Quarter Ended
(In thousands)	November 26, 2011			November 27, 2010
Interest cost	$	481		$	476
Service cost	140			152
Net amortization and deferral	(764		)	(776		)
Net periodic postretirement benefit income	$	(143	)	$	(148	)
Payments for postretirement health care	$	323		$	306

For accounting purposes, we recognized net periodic postretirement income as presented in the table above, due to the amortization of prior service credit associated with the establishment of caps on the employer portion of benefits in Fiscal 2005. In October 2011, our Board of Directors approved a reduction in the employer dollar caps to be effective in January 2012 whereby the employer established dollar caps for postretirement health care benefits per eligible employee will be reduced by 10%, which is estimated to reduce our liability for postretirement health care by approximately $4.6 million and will be amortized as prior service credit over the next eight fiscal years.