Note 11 - Pension Plans

9 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Notes to Financial Statements

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

11.

Pension Plans

We maintain

three

defined benefit pension plans:

one

for United Kingdom employees,

one

for German employees and

one

for Philippine employees. We deposit funds for the United Kingdom and Philippine plans with financial institutions and make payments to former German employees directly. We accrue for the unfunded portion of the obligations. The measurement date for projected benefit obligations and plan assets is

March

31.

As of

December

31,

2016,

the German defined benefit plan was completely unfunded and we accrued for its obligations. The United Kingdom and German plans have been curtailed. As such, the plans are closed to new entrants and no credit is provided for additional periods of service. We expect to contribute approximately

$1.1

million to the United Kingdom and the Philippines plans in the fiscal year ending

March

31,

2017.

Net Period Pension Cost

The net periodic pension expense includes the following components (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	December 31,						December 31,
	2016			2015			2016			2015
	(unaudited)						(unaudited)
Service cost	$	27		$	25		$	83		$	76
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		313			364			991			1,103
Expected return on plan assets		(282	)		(432	)		(901	)		(1,312	)
Recognized actuarial loss		41			44			133			134
Net periodic pension expense	$	99		$	1		$	306		$	1

Information on Plan Assets

We report and measure the plan assets of our defined benefit pension plans at fair value. The table below sets forth the fair value of our plan assets as of

December

31,

2016

and

March

31,

2016,

using the same

three

-level hierarchy of fair-value inputs described in Note

4,

“Fair Value” (in thousands):

	December 31, 2016						March 31, 2016
Description	Level 1		Level 2		Total		Level 1		Level 2		Total
	(unaudited)						(unaudited)
Cash and cash funds	$	103	$	-	$	103	$	121	$	-	$	121
Equity		305		-		305		351		-		351
Fixed interest		1,211		58		1,269		1,225		96		1,321
Mutual funds		12,891		12,751		25,642		13,527		13,394		26,921
Total	$	14,510	$	12,809	$	27,319	$	15,224	$	13,490	$	28,714