A work transfer apparatus comprising a retaining unit (100) which can rotate unitary with a rotation table (20) which constitutes a transferring mechanism that is intermittently driven, a lifting and lowering unit (200) for lowering the retaining unit in order to transfer a work held by the retaining unit onto a processing table (30) as well as lifting the retaining unit in order to transfer the work held on the processing table onto the retaining unit, and a fixing unit (300) which can fix the work held on the retaining unit and release its fixation to transfer the work onto the processing table. According to the apparatus, it is possible to transfer the work from the retaining unit onto the processing table, and the work that has been processed from the processing table onto the retaining unit only through lifting operation of the retaining unit, and fixing and releasing operations of the fixing unit, thereby allowing simplification in the structure, miniaturization of the apparatus and reduction in time required for transferring etc.