The CFMEU and officials, including an organiser who acted in a "provocative, bullying and intimidating" way, have been fined $205,100 for illegal activity on Adelaide building sites.

Describing the construction union’s record as “dismal”, Justice Richard White fined it and 10 current and former officials for illegal activity on three sites in 2014.

CFMEU organiser John Perkovic was fined $5000 for “provocative, bullying and intimidating” behaviour towards a Fair Work building industry inspector at the Ibis Hotel site in Adelaide’s city centre.

Perkovic and several other CFMEU officials were asked to show their right of entry permits when they approached the site, the Federal Court judge said.

Video footage showed Perkovic confronting the inspector and calling him a “f***ing piece of sh*t”.

Justice White said the CFMEU had shown an “attitude of indifference” towards right-of-entry laws.

“The element of deterrence is particularly important in the present case because of the CFMEU’s long record of non-compliance with industrial legislation,” he said.

“It is fair to describe the CFMEU record as dismal.”

The union and its officials were also fined for right-of-entry breaches at an aged care facility site and a residential construction site in suburban Adelaide, Fair Work Building and Construction said.

FWBC has also launched separate Federal Court cases against the CFMEU for alleged misconduct at other construction sites across Adelaide.

CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan said the union made no apologies for protecting workers.

“We’ve had a significant number of reports in Adelaide of contractors with bad safety practices on their jobs and engaging in sham contracting and rip-offs of workers,” he told AAP.

“The union is going to continue to attend to those issues.”