(1) "Commission" means the industrial commission of Colorado, as said commission existed prior to July 1, 1986.

(2) "Commissioner" means one of the members of the commission.

(2.5) "Department" means the department of labor and employment.

(3) "Deputy" means any person employed by the division designated as such deputy by the director, and who may be engaged in the performance of duties under the direction of the director.

(4) "Director" means the director of the division of labor standards and statistics.

(5) "Division" means the division of labor standards and statistics in the department of labor and employment.

(6) "Employee" means every person in the service of an employer, under any contract of hire, express or implied, not including an elective official of the state, or of any county, city, town, irrigation, drainage, or school district thereof, and not including any officers or enlisted men of the National Guard of the state of Colorado.

(7) (a) "Employer" means:

(I) The state, and each county, city, town, irrigation, and school district therein, and all public institutions and administrative boards thereof having four or more employees;

(II) Every person, association of persons, firm, and private corporation, including any public service corporation, manager, personal representative, assignee, trustee, and receiver, who has four or more persons regularly engaged in the same business or employment, except as otherwise expressly provided in this article, in service under any contract of hire, expressed or implied.

(b) This article is not intended to apply to employers of private domestic servants or farm and ranch labor; nor to employers who employ less than four employees regularly in the same business, or in or about the same place of employment.

(8) "Employment" means any trade, occupation, job, position, or process of manufacture or any method of carrying on any such trade, occupation, job, position, or process of manufacture in which any person is engaged, except as otherwise expressly provided in this article.

(8.5) "Executive director" means the executive director of the department of labor and employment.

(9) "General order" means an order of the director applying generally throughout the state to all persons, employments, or places of employment under the jurisdiction of the division. All other orders of the director shall be considered special orders.

(10) "Local order" means any ordinance, order, rule, or determination of any common council, board of aldermen, board of supervisors, board of trustees, or board of commissioners of any county, town, city, or city and county operating under any general or special law of this state or of the board of health of the state or any municipality therein or any order or direction of any official of the state or municipality therein.

(11) "Order" means any decision, rule, regulation, requirement, or standard promulgated by the director.

(12) "Place of employment" means every place, whether indoors or outdoors or underground, and the premises, work places, works, and plants appertaining thereto or used in connection therewith where either temporarily or permanently any industry, trade, or business is carried on, or where any process or operation directly or indirectly relating to any industry, trade, or business is carried on, or where any person is directly or indirectly employed by another for direct or indirect gain or profit, except as otherwise expressly provided in this article.

(13) "Safe" or "safety", as applied to an employment or place of employment, means such freedom from danger to the life, health, and safety of employees and such reasonable means of notification, egress, and escape in case of catastrophe as the nature of the employment reasonably permits.

(14) "State personnel system" means the personnel system of the state as described in section 13 of article XII of the state constitution and the state personnel system as described in article 50 of title 24, C.R.S.