The bill passed the California State Assembly on Aug. 30 in a 43-22 vote.
Davis vetoed the bill under the rationale that while he supports employees rights to privacy, he is not interested in putting a regulatory burden on businesses.
Sponsored by State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, SB 147 would have extended protections already given to employees in their office telephone usage.
"I just fundamentally disagree with the governors rationale on this issue because I think it misses the larger point of a persons right to and expectation of privacy," Bowen said in a statement. "Just because employers own the computers and pay for the Internet access doesnt mean they have the right to spy on their workers any more than owning the telephone and paying the phone bill allows them to monitor or record their workers personal phone conversations without telling them."
Bowen said that the bill was not designed as a nod and a wink for employees in California to indulge in unlimited personal computer use in the workplace, and questioned the motives of employers who want to spend their time monitoring employee e-mail.
"If you want to fire people, clearly you dont want to tell them theyre being monitored, but if you want to stop workers from conducting personal business on company time, youre going to be much more likely to succeed if you tell your employees about the company monitoring policies in advance," Bowen said. "The best way to do that isnt by slapping a monitoring notice on a poster in the company break room; its to put it in an employee handbook, a memo, an e-mail message, or something else that you know will get into the hands of every employee."
Bowen added that many employers in California are buying "cheap, off-the-shelf spyware to track employees every click and keystroke," often without employees knowledge.
Bowen in her statement cited statistics published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that show that 74 percent of U.S. companies monitor their workers Internet use, while 72 percent read their e-mail.
Davis vetoed a similar version of SB 147 last year.
A governors spokesman said that Davis and Bowen had been working together to craft a bill he would feel willing to pass.
Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes
