The mining union and its officials have been ordered to pay more than $650,000 in fines for verbally abusing strike-breaking workers during a seven-month lockout, including calling them “scabs” on social media.

Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah found the Mining and Energy Union’s abuse at the picket line of Glencore’s 2017-18 Oaky North coal mine lockout in Queensland, including calling non-members parasites, scabs and grubs, was designed to intimidate and stop them exercising “a core tenet of freedom of association”.