employee relations in the field of employee relations the company reports continued progress no work stoppages occurred on company projects during the year through effective collective bargaining and judicious administration of union labor contracts the company continues to enjoy good labor relations within the industry progress has been made in centralizing activities and developing policies regarding industrial relations safety compensation and benefit plans and recruitment it is anticipated that 1959 will see the development of a completely integrated personnel relations program tailored to the specific needs of the company in order to strengthen the management structure to meet the requirements of the company's expanded and diversified activities early in the year j a mecia c w robinson and a l reeves were elected vice presidents ando.l dykstra was named to the position of treasurer in august mr littlefield the executive vice president was appointed to the additional post of general manager through its program of employee benefits the company continues to offer protectio providing benefits under its group insurance plan and the retirement plan to its employees by during 1958 702 permanent employees and their families were covered under the group insurance plan the face amount of life insurance in effect under the plan amounted to 5,5 17,000 on individual policies ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 six hundred thirty-three claims amounting to 63,284 were paid to employees and their families the total billed premium cost to the company was 138,678 n based g p y g y $, e paid to retiring or terminating employees for the year 1958 the company set aside the sum of 452,578 as its current contribution under the plan on a three year averaging formula the basis for determining the company con tribution to the plan the contribution based on net profits exceeded the amount required to pay the maximum current contributions under the terms of the trust agreement and therefore the company was able to restore to earnings an excess credit in the reserve for future payments under the plan of 247,578 charged to ei in previous years at the close of the year 503 employees were members of the utah construction company retirement plan b on profit sharing a net increase of 1 1 5 from the previous year during the year benefits of 35,497 were pa tii titi l f th 1958 h id h f 452578 i c financial comment arnings the very nature of utah construction company activities and the inherent complexity of its corporate structure make difficult the task of presenting the facts and figures relating the financial results of operations in an effort to bring the picture into sharper focus for the stockholders it is the practice of the management to acquaint the owners with all the pertinent factors that is 1 the parent company earnings including the net profit arising from its own operations and from investment income received from other companies in which it holds an interest 2 the parent company's share of the undistributed earnings of sub sidiary and affiliated companies 3 a potential hidden value inherent to mineral reserves and other assets of the company its subsidiaries or affiliates and 4 the change in market or indicated value of certain securities held by the company specific comment has been made with respect to the first two factors in the letter to stockholders and it has also been indicated that it is impractical if not impossible to appraise the present value of certain assets such as land held for resale and development mining lands and leases ships and con struction equipment although it is believed that the value of the utah equity in such assets is conservatively stated on the financial statements the last factor outlined above has become increasingly important in the utah picture and deserves special explanatory comment the company-owned securities in other companies have an indicated or book equity value far in excess of their original cost which is the basis of reporting value on company books and the balance sheet statement made a part of this overall report two of these securities the stock held in permanente cement company and th lucky me uranium corporation stock are more or less actively traded in the over-the-counter markets holdings in permanente however have become relatively minor by reason of distributions of 79,810 shares during the fiscal period in the form of dividends to stockholders stock in lucky me is actively traded in relatively small quantities but the security market's real ability to absorb a large offering has never been tested with this caution in mind the indicated value or book equity of the securities held by the com pany compared with the close of the prior year can be reported as follows : share of their net range of bid price during recent months this and prior reports have advised of the realization of material losses in 1956 1957 and 1958 on certain contracts some of which were still in process at october 31 1958 and which losses have been charged to income of those years for federal income tax purposes a substantial portion of the losses incurred has not thus far been claimed as a deduction nor will such losses be taken into account until the particular long term contract is com pleted no allowance has been made on the balance sheet statement for tax savings that may ultimately be realized from losses sustained but not claimed for tax purposes negotiations for revision of these contracts are in process and claims for additional compensation have been made no provision has been made for future losses on these contracts nor is there any accounting for anticipated recoveries possibly substantial under claims filed because the amounts of such recoveries are not susceptible to reasonable deter mination however the management of the company is of the opinion that recoveries under these claims will exceed the amount of future losses arising from such contracts the federal income tax returns of the company have been examined by the internal revenue service through the year 1954 the company considers that adequate provision has been made for any additional liability which may be ultimately assessed contingencies indeterminable in amount include the usual liability of con tractors for completion of contracts and possible liability in joint venture participation and in connection with performance and indemnity bonds and agreements relating to subsidiaries and affiliated companies