8. Special Charges

We recognized special charges of $7.1 million and $3.7 million for the quarters ended December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, related to various organizational changes implemented to improve our business alignment and cost structure. These charges are summarized below.

Welch Allyn Integration

In conjunction with the acquisition of Welch Allyn in September 2015, we initiated plans to realign our business structure to facilitate the integration, take full advantage of available synergies, and position our existing businesses to capitalize on opportunities for growth. Immediately after the acquisition was completed, we eliminated approximately 100 positions in Welch Allyn's corporate support and administrative functions. We recorded special charges of $14.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 related to this action and as many of the affected employees were required to continue service for a specified period of time, additional amounts were expected to be incurred through the second quarter of fiscal 2016. During the first quarter of fiscal 2016, we incurred additional charges of approximately $3.5 million related to this action, along with an additional $1.0 million of severance and benefit costs related to other integration activities. We expect additional severance costs of up to $2 million to be recorded in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 related to the Welch Allyn redundancies, at which time all service obligations are expected to be fulfilled. We are continuing to evaluate additional actions related to integration and business realignment and expect additional special charges to be incurred, however, it is not practical at this time to estimate the amount of these future expected costs.

Site Consolidation

In the third quarter of fiscal 2015, we initiated a plan to streamline our operations and simplify our supply chain by consolidating certain manufacturing and distribution operations. As part of this action, we announced the closure of sites in Redditch, England and Charleston, South Carolina. Upon closure, each site's operations will either be relocated to other existing Company facilities or outsourced to third-party suppliers. During fiscal 2015, we recorded severance and benefit charges of $2.7 million for approximately 160 employees to be displaced by the closures, as well as $1.8 million of other related costs. During the first quarter of fiscal 2016, we recorded a net reversal of previously recorded severance and benefit charges of $0.2 million and recognized other related costs of $1.7 million related to these actions. We expect to incur approximately $1 million to $2 million of additional charges in fiscal 2016 for personnel costs and site closure expenses related to these actions, at which time such actions will be complete. The Company is continuing to evaluate its facilities footprint and additional costs are likely to be incurred with respect to other actions in the future, however, it is not practical to estimate the amount of these future expected costs until such time as the evaluations are complete.

Global Transformation

During the second quarter of fiscal 2014, we announced a global restructuring program focused on improving our cost structure. The domestic portion of this action is now complete. Part of this program included reducing our European manufacturing capacity and streamlining our global operations by, among other things, executing a back office process transformation program in Europe. The restructuring in Europe is in process and, for the first quarter of fiscal 2016, resulted in charges of $1.1 million for legal and professional fees, temporary labor, project management, and other administrative functions. These amounts compare to charges of $3.7 million in the prior year's first quarter. Since the inception of the global restructuring program through December 31, 2015, we have recognized aggregate special charges of $38.7 million. We expect to incur $4 million to $8 million of additional European restructuring costs through the completion of the program.

For all accrued severance and other benefit charges described above, we record restructuring reserves within other current liabilities. The reserve activity for severance and other benefits during fiscal 2016 was as follows:

Balance at September 30, 2015	$	24.3
Expenses		4.6
Cash Payments		(11.8	)
Reversals		(0.3	)
Balance at December 31, 2015	$	16.8