Are P&O stealing from passengers???

Sorry you've not heard from me for a week or so; I've been away on my hols. I'm back now so normal service will be resumed shortly - or now even, how have you all been?
I've obviously spent most of the last week either relaxing or doing my best to keep two young children entertained, (no easy task as any parent will tell you), but in my quieter moments I've also been keeping an eye on what's happening in the cruising world.
I'm sure it's old news to most of you by now but one story shocked me so much when I heard about it I felt I had to comment on it here. - P&O's new tipping scheme.

It was awhile back now when P&O announced they would be changing their tipping policy. Rather than you just tipping whoever you wanted to at the end of the cruise in cash, (or via the envelope left in your cabin), P&O's 'reccomended' gratuities would be automatically added onto your onboard account at the end of the cruise.
This meant you wouldn't need to have any cash onboard and if you didn't want to you didn't have to worry about tipping at all, it was already handled for you.

I know many people were unhappy with this situation and P&O were quick to confirm this system wasn't compulsory. If you wanted to have the tips removed so you could tip yourself then you still could. It was just meant to make things easier for everyone by streamlining the process and I personally prefer this.

However!

It was P&O's follow up statement last week that really shocked me.
If their staff onboard didn't meet certain criteria/levels of satisfaction set by P&O then all the tips from that cruise would be withheld from them. Now on the face of it that doesn't sound too terrible. After all, if a staff member is under performing why should they be tipped. But stop and think about it for a second. Some of those satisfaction levels are set as high as 96%. Can you say you're perfect in your job 96% of the time?
Lets use an example.....
Say you're really happy with your waiter/cabin steward. Lets say they go above and beyond and you couldn't be more happy with them. You're happy to tip them but you don't as you know P&O have added your tips to them onto your onboard account. You disembark happy in the knowledge that your waiter/cabin steward will get your tips. If then that waiter/cabin/steward gets a bad review from another passenger not only will he not get a tip from them, (obviously), he'd lose yours, even though you were happy for him to have those tips!
This is then where I think things get really bad. Do you get those tips back? Nope! P&O keep them!
How is that fair?!!!!? How is that right!??? Shouldn't your tips go to the person you intended to get them?
If you leave a tip for someone how is it fair P&O get to keep it? You're not tipping them, you've already paid them for the cruise in the first instance. Although in their defence they've not said what they will do with the monies.
I couldn't believe how shocked I was when I first read this and the more I think about it the more annoyed I get. I don't know if it will help the poor crew but the next time I'm on a P&O cruise I wont let them automatically add my gratuities to my account anymore. I'll pay it in cash to the staff I want to have it in the hopes that they don't have to hand it over.

For shame P&O! I expect better from a big corporation like yourselves.

What do you think? What would you class this as? Would you be happy knowing you'd left a tip for someone only to find that P&O plc had pocketed it?

Oh well, happy cruising I guess.