The government has today agreed to impose a progressive levy mechanism to encourage employers to hire local workers, beginning 2019, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The mechanism to increase levy in stages was agreed by the cabinet committee on foreign workers and illegal immigrants, which was chaired by Ahmad Zahid who is also home minister.

"The cabinet committee was told that local employers are more inclined to hire foreign workers due to lower cost," he said in a statement today.

"To encourage employers to hire the locals, the progressive levy was considered and agreed upon," said Zahid.

The government had initially wanted to impose the "hiring levy", known as the Employer Mandatory Commitment (EMC), in February 2016.

However, it postponed its implementation to early 2018 and after much protest from the industry, the government decided to postpone it to 2019.

Zahid said the government has also decided that foreign workers must undergo compulsory a series of health screening as an enhanced way to curbing contagious disease.

The foreign workers are required to conduct body checks before they leave their country, followed by another screening in the first month after they arrive in Malaysia and by the end of the first year and second year.

Subsequently, they need to go for body checks every two years, he said.

Malaysia has a registered total of 1.8 million legal migrant workers as of July 31, 2017, compared with 2.1 million in 2015.