14. Retirement Benefit Plan

One of the Company’s German subsidiaries has a non-contributory, defined benefit retirement plan for eligible employees. This plan provides benefits based on the employee’s years of service and compensation during the years immediately preceding retirement, early retirement, termination, disability, or death, as defined in the plan.

During the fiscal year 2014, the Company initiated workforce reduction actions. These actions resulted in terminations of German employees who are eligible to receive future benefits under the German defined benefit pension plan. See Note 15 in Condensed Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the Company’s cost reduction actions that were initiated during the three months ended December 28, 2013.

The cost of the plan for the three and six months ended March 28, 2015 and March 29, 2014 included the following components:



	Three Months Ended				Six Months Ended
		March 28,		March 29,		March 28,		March 29,
		2015		2014		2015		2014
	(in thousands)
Service cost	$	212	$	201	$	445	$	401
Interest cost		157		210		329		419
Expected return on plan assets		(249)		(258)		(522)		(515)
Net amortization and deferral		123		117		259		233
Special termination benefits		-		(109)		-		82
Net periodic benefit cost	$	243	$	161	$	511	$	620

The weighted average expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine the net periodic benefit cost for each of the three and six months ended March 28, 2015 and March 29, 2014 was 5.5%