I wonder if this is the same establishment that rejected my cousin (about 30 years ago) for a job as sysadmin because she wore a back brace - evidently all staff had to be able to climb up on to the roof to be able to check the weather readings? Of course it had nothing to do with her being female and more qualified than the head of department :-)

One of my old neighbours in Bracknell used to work at the met office about 15 years ago. He was on 14K when I was doing similar work for Cray at roughly 25K and most jobs were offering 30K for the same skills. When I asked why he worked for suchcrap pay he explained that salary reviews were based not upon job performance but upon academic achievements (such as papers presented etc) He kept things running and did not present papers so was paid nada. His boss did eff all and spent his time at conferences presenting papers.