Retirement and Postretirement Plans

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Retirement and Postretirement Plans [Abstract]

Retirement and Postretirement Plans

6.   Retirement and Postretirement Plans

We sponsor five defined benefit retirement plans: a master defined benefit retirement plan, a nonqualified supplemental executive defined benefit retirement plan and three defined benefit retirement plans covering employees in Germany and France. Benefits for such plans are based primarily on years of service and the employee's level of compensation during specific periods of employment. We contribute funds to trusts as necessary to provide for current service and for any unfunded projected future benefit obligation over a reasonable period of time for our funded plans. All of our plans have an annual measurement date of September 30. The following table includes the components of net pension expense for our defined benefit plans.

	Quarter Ended March 31						Year to Date Ended March 31
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Service cost	$	1.3		$	1.3		$	2.7		$	2.5
Interest cost		3.7			3.6			7.4			7.2
Expected return on plan assets		(4.2	)		(4.2	)		(8.5	)		(8.4	)
Amortization of unrecognized prior service cost, net		0.2			0.1			0.3			0.3
Amortization of net loss		1.3			0.8			2.7			1.6
Net pension expense		2.3			1.6			4.6			3.2
Special termination benefits		-			2.4			-			2.4
Net pension expense	$	2.3		$	4.0		$	4.6		$	5.6

We also sponsor a domestic postretirement health care plan that provides health care benefits to qualified retirees and dependents until eligible for Medicare. Annual costs related to the domestic postretirement health care plan are not significant.

During the second quarter of fiscal 2014, we initiated a domestic early retirement program, which offered certain special termination benefits relating to our pension and postretirement health care plans. This program and the related special termination benefits resulted in a non-cash charge of $4.5 million, $2.4 million of which related to our master defined benefit retirement plan and $2.1 million for our postretirement health care plan. During the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2014, we reversed a cumulative $1.3 million of the $2.1 million postretirement health care plan charge as certain participants elected alternative coverage separate from the postretirement health care plan. The employee elections were not known until the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2014. Refer to Note 8 for more details.

We have defined contribution savings plans that cover substantially all U.S. employees and certain non-U.S. employees. The general purpose of these plans is to provide additional financial security during retirement by providing employees with an incentive to make regular savings. Company contributions to the plans are based on eligibility and employee contributions. Expense under these plans was $3.8 million and $3.6 million in each of the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2015 and 2014; and $8.0 million and $7.3 million in the year to date periods ended March 31, 2015 and 2014.